#but that’s not all it also has a well developed overarching plot line that slowly gets more important as the story progresses

[one-more-guy]

When I try to convince people to listen to tma I feel like a real estate agent trying to sell a house, but since the fandom is the magnus archives it immediately makes me think about our dear real estate agent Helen Richardson. Which distracts me and completely derailing my sales pitch (which she’d probably like, being of the spiral after all)

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

The Owl House and pacing, a perspective from a fanfic writer that works with a large cast

I’ve seen a bunch of complains about the way The Owl House is paced lately. People claiming that it’s bad writing, and rushed, and whatnot. But from how I see it, you’re complaining for all the wrong reasons, and to the wrong people.

TL;DR: this is an overlaying issue with Disney and the industry that doesn’t allow long shows anymore, essentially forcing writers to pick between good pacing and complex stories being told with large casts.

For context: the fandom I wrote for before I got into The Owl House had a pretty small main cast. There were a few reoccurring characters, but most of them only showed up like five total times over the course of four seasons or had little personality, so my main cast I was writing about always consisted of my main five characters, with occasional cameos here and there. All characters were living together and experienced the adventure from the same perspective. There was one overarching storyline and not multiple. The interpersonal relationships still varied, though, for obvious reasons.

Now think about how large The Owl House cast is, and why that’d send them running into issues. Or don’t, because I have a whole-ass in depth analysis under the cut because this got unreasonably long.

(Also I’d appreciate a reblog, I spent… an unreasonable amount of time on this, lol)

The Owl House is different. There’s the main characters: Luz, Eda, King, maybe Hooty, technically (someone recently pointed out that he’s technically the titular character of the show and I’m still processing that, lol).

But they also have a HUGE additional cast to work with. There’s Lilith, Eda’s sister, and the main antagonist of season one, who has a lot to her character and gets a ton of screen time. There’s Amity, and there’s Willow and Gus, Luz’s friends. They’re all very fleshed out characters, and got a bunch of screen time and development, despite “only” being reoccurring characters and not the main characters.

Then there’s characters that have played a fairly minor role so far. There’s Belos, the big bad villain, who we will likely learn a lot more about this season. There’s the Golden Guard, the new main antagonist our cast deals with personally, who we’re just starting to learn more about. There’s Camila, Luz’s mom, who, despite only showing up a couple of times in the show so far, is very relevant to Luz and how the plot will ultimately turn out. There’s Edric and Emira, Amity’s siblings, who despite only showing up a few times as well seem to have a very worked out personality and background and also have a story that is (at least to some extent) going to be told according to the AMA.

There is at least one more seemingly important character whose role in the bigger story is hard to tell at this point, Raine, but according to the description of the episode, they’re probably going to influence the story a bunch.

There’s Alador and Odalia, who are responsible for a lot of their children’s toxic behaviors, and seem to have bigger plans that will probably be relevant later on.

The characters that are only focused on for an episode or two (like Matt and the troublemaker kids) all have very worked out personalities and even short arcs.

And heck, even characters like Boscha, who is extremely minor and seems like a very one-dimensional bully for the most part, get their moments that hint at there being more to them. We know Boscha has a clingy mom, that apparently has a rivalry with Odalia and works with Amity’s parents. The scene at the beginning of Wing It Like Witches tells us a lot about her general mindset and how she’s embraced that winning at whatever cost is the only thing that matters.

This leaves us with: 3-4 main characters

3 friends with fleshed out stories

Lilith, who is probably the most relevant aside from the main cast

Belos, the main antagonist, and the Golden Guard, currently starting to become a lot more relevant

A whole handful of minor reoccurring characters that have the potential to become bigger characters at any point in time

A handful of minor reoccurring characters that mainly seem to be there to further the story, but still get to have distinctive personalities and motivations (looking p.e. at the troublemaker kids)

That is AT LEAST 9 pretty major, relevant characters whose stories have to be tackled in the same show, in addition to the people that joined in season two and a huge supporting cast of well-developed characters that clearly also have stories of their own, even if not all of them will get told.

On top of that, the Owl House lives from exploring different relationships and different storylines. There’s the overarching story of how flawed the system is that will likely end with them overthrowing Belos, but there’s so much more.

Eda and the curse. Eda becoming a better mentor for Luz. Eda coming to terms with the loss of her magic.

Luz learning to cast magic with glyphs. Making friends for the first time. Slowly falling in love with Amity. Fighting to be able to learn whatever kind of magic she wants to. Learning that she’s not a burden to people. Struggling with her relationship with her mom, and trying to restore the portal so she can get back to her. Figuring out her future and what she really wants.

Lilith trying to cure Eda, and now in season two coming to terms with the loss of her magic and fixing her relationship with her sister. Lilith learning to ask for help.

Willow switching tracks. Willow growing more confident.

Amity becoming a better person, fixing her relationship with Willow, standing up to her parents, falling in love with Luz. Starting to fix her relationship with her siblings.

King finding out where he came from.

Hints at Gus struggling with decision making and stressing himself out less. Gus learning to be more selfless. Struggling with his magic track and being the youngest in his grade.

The newly introduced plot point with the Golden Guard. The plot point about the rebellion that will get introduced next episode.

The mystery with the letters.

And I’m like 90% sure I’ve forgotten something.

That is… a lot of different plots and relationships that are in some way important to the story.

In comparison, as stated, the last show I wrote for focused mostly on the same five characters and their relationships with each other, and one overarching plotline aside from some minor interpersonal relationships with two people’s family members that weren’t even introduced for several seasons. The first season fully focused on establishing the bond within this found family with exactly 1 important reoccurring character, an antagonist that had little personality and got a total of one line of backstory before he died.

If you have 90% of a season to develop 5 characters who live together, that’s a lot easier to do than developing twice the amount of important characters + introducing reoccurring characters season one of The Owl House has—the majority of which have separate lives and do not live together and thus can’t be focused on at the same time.

I’ve seen a bunch of people complain recently that the pacing of The Owl House is off, that the writing is bad, that the show is rushed, etc. etc.

And I get those complains. Believe me, as a viewer and also as an author that takes a lot of time to develop each character and their issues individually, I 100% get it.

But as an author that’s currently learning how hard it is to tackle a cast of the size that The Owl House has, I’ve also come to a whole different understanding from the perspective of the writers on the show.

For context, Locked Out focuses on a couple of serious themes, in the same way that the show does. It has 4 main plotlines: Amity Camila and Luz, Edric and Emira, Eda and Lilith, Willow and the Grudgby Squad (as well as a Gus arc that ties into the last one while also being its own thing, we’re getting to that part). So far, it prominently features: Luz, Amity, Camila, Eda, Emira, Edric, Willow and Gus, and to a lesser extent King, Lilith and Boscha, Skara and Amelia in relation to the separate plots.

That’s eight main characters across five different households. And then there’s the reoccurring characters that will have a larger role later on that I’ve not even had the opportunity to bring into the story yet/feature in a more prominent way. The cast is still growing.

And heck, I have all the time in the world to write this thing, because I don’t have an episode limit, or a deadline, or a limited amount of money to produce it.

For Locked Out, it took me 120k to get through a single week of plot at a very high level of character development, with about as many important characters as TOH has in season 1, and with an equally high number of reoccurring characters, some minor, some major. I think you can compare it to the show pretty well. I’d say, if I were to split Locked Out into episodes, I’d set one episode at about 10k. That would be 12 episodes. 12 episodes to get through a single week. Heck, even if I said 20k words were to be one episode, which I’m pretty sure is too much realistically, that would still be 6 episodes for one week.

And TOH covers more than three months.

That would be at least 72 total episodes to get through the three months of summer camp. And we’re currently progressing past that point.

72 episodes.

Let that sit for a while o.o

Everything that’s happened in season one (which as we know now was about 2 months) would have happened in 48 episodes rather than 19. Pacing-wise, everything would happen at less than 0.5x the speed. The first four episodes of season two would’ve been 24 episodes, assuming we hadn’t skipped a week and a half and had instead shown the immediate aftermath of the petrification ceremony, too.

And I’d love if we could have that, and if we could actually develop the characters and their relationships that thoroughly.

But the sad fact is that shows like The Owl House do not get the amount of episodes that would be required to develop every single aspect of the show to its fullest potential. Disney rarely greenlits shows of 150 episodes anymore. They used to, once, (Phineas&Ferb for example had 130+ episodes—you could tell one hell of a story in that many episodes), but that’s not a thing anymore. And the writers know that going into a show. They know the chances their story will be told in that way are very low.

And thus, the writers, especially ones working with large casts, have to make a choice: cut characters they love, and plots that are important to them, because they know they won’t get the amount of episodes required to do everything perfectly, OR include most of what they want to do, but at the cost of the pacing being off and everything seemingly happening too fast.

The Owl House crew went with the second option. The biggest issue the show has isn’t bad writing. The show’s biggest issue is that its cast and the story the crew members want to tell are too big for the amount of episodes they’ve been given (especially now that Disney decided to cut season 3 down into just three 44 minute specials).

And that’s on Disney, and Disney alone.

The crew is making the most of the amount of episodes they have, and unfortunately the lack of time forces them to rush things, and to sometimes sideline characters to focus on others.

Lilith got a bunch of screen time in the first four episodes. I’m sad to see her go, but she’s basically guaranteed to be back by season 2B. And there’s other people that have gotten way less focus than her so far. We‘ve seen basically nothing of Willow and Gus for the first few episodes, and I’m super happy Gus finally got some focus! We haven’t been inside Hexside all season except to see Luz expelled! And episode seven is even going to introduce a new character. Sometimes there’s parts of the story that certain characters don’t have a place in. And it sucks if they’re characters you like. But Lilith has to go for a bit so other characters can get the same amount of spotlight she did. At the end of the day, Lilith is not part of the main cast. She’s a very important reoccurring character, yes, but so are Amity, Willow and Gus. The main characters are Eda, Luz and King, and they’re the only ones that will always be around. And heck, even Eda got sidelined for a bit in the last two episodes, because we needed to focus on other characters. If not even the main characters are always around because we need some spotlight time for other characters, you can’t expect any more minor reoccurring cast member to be.

God, I wish they’d be given more time and more episodes to bring every part of the plot to its full potential, but they don’t have those, so they sometimes have to take shortcuts that unfortunately cheapen the story here and there. It’s the only way they can hope to tell their story to the end at all. And that makes me hella sad because it’s so obvious that they have an incredible story to tell, and that there’s so much more to so many of the characters we just don’t have the time to focus on.

The thing is: I liked the episode with Gwendolyn. It sends an important message that will hopefully get some parents who watch with their children thinking, and I’ve seen a couple of people talk about how close to home it hit for them. I have also seen a couple of people complain about that being too fast—and also just in general about things in the show getting sorted out too fast. And I get it. At least with this particular episode, I 100% get it.

(I’ve also seen some people complain that “Amity stood up to her parents too fast in Escaping Expulsion”, but I vehemently disagree with that. We’ve been building towards that moment since season one, with her doing more and more things that were technically defying her parents. I don’t see how this was rushed.)

Just… please don’t blame the writers. Dana even said that Keeping Up A-Fearances is one of the episodes that hit very close to home for her in the recent stream iirc? So I highly doubt this was rushed on purpose, or because the whole thing is “bad writing” when the entire writing quality of the show says otherwise.

A lot of shows in general have the issue that they have to be written season by season rather than as a full story these days, because there’s always a chance that they won’t get a next season. How large scale the story they want to tell actually is doesn’t matter if there’s a solid chance they won’t get to do any of it.

From a viewer perspective, I get being frustrated at the pacing being off. But from a writer perspective, the chances are very high that this is a choice they had to make, rather than one they wanted to make. And I don’t think you can truly see this if you’ve never worked with a fleshed out cast that large—Locked Out was really eye-opening for me in that regard.

This isn’t simply a case of bad writing/bad pacing by choice. It’s forced. They’re forced to rush through their plots because otherwise they won’t get the chance to tell certain parts of the story at all. And the saddest thing about this is really that those 72+ episodes to flesh out these plot points further wouldn’t have been an impossible thing to get, at a time.

Go for Disney’s head. Yell at the industry for being what it is today, for constantly axing shows before even giving them a real chance. But this isn’t on the crew.

[wordsnstuff]

20 Mistakes To Avoid in Enemies To Lovers

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Weak Conflict

There should always be a strong, compelling source of tension between two people who are considered enemies. Even if their rivalry stems from external sources, such as bad blood between families or competing for a number one spot, there should always be a concrete reason why they hate each other.

Not Explaining Forgiveness

When one of these conflicts subsides, or a tense moment resolves, it should be justified. Tension and emotions shouldn’t disappear because you’re trying to stuff romantic moments in here and there. If one of your characters crosses a line and the other character chooses to forgive them, there needs to be a clear and understandable reason. It doesn’t always have to sit well with the reader. Your character can make a blatantly stupid decision, but it needs to serve the plot. 

No Tension To Be Found

If your characters have to verbally or physically assault each other to demonstrate the tension between them, you’re doing it wrong. If they have to kiss for the reader to see that they like each other, you’re doing it wrong. Tension is in the little things. It’s in the instances that most people would overlook, but your characters zero-in on because the subtext is too thick to gloss over. Tension is the most important plot device in enemies-to-lovers stories, so it requires a lot of time and attention to minute details. 

Conflict Solved Too Easily

If the rivalry between your characters is one misstep after another, with immediate forgiveness following, the tension won’t build correctly. You’re working your way up to a boiling over moment. A moment where everything comes out and then, once resolved, makes way for the romantic feelings to enter. If the conflicts don’t slowly build on each other, that boiling moment will come out of nowhere and be less satisfying to read. Don’t let your characters off that easily. Enemies aren’t constantly letting things slide. 

Characters Changing For One Another

People don’t need to be exactly the same to see attractive qualities in one another. It’s true that relationships shift your perspective and that it occasionally results in outward changes in behavior, but one or both characters shouldn’t mold their personality around their partner. 

Stupid Potion

If one of your characters has to become oblivious or avoid critical thought to maintain a relationship with that character, you haven’t made the two characters compatible enough. This is especially true when one or both of your character’s identity revolves around a higher intelligence. They should have enough in common that there doesn’t have to be a giant shift in one or both personalities to work as a couple. 

The Relationship Brings Them Down

The thing about enemies to lovers stories is that the happy endings are usually an indication of the author’s view of what is and is not forgivable in a potential partner. The acceptance of someone’s past mistakes, current flaws, and future struggles. When a love story ends with a couple that repeatedly lower each other or hurt each other, that sends a bad message, and that is your responsibility to avoid. It doesn’t need a happy ending, but it should never have a destructive one. 

Writing Abuse Instead of Rivalry

There is a big difference between writing two equals who have a rivalry slowly falling in love and putting aside their differences, and writing an abusive, predatory love interest who repeatedly hurts, manipulates, and gaslights the main character. Just because you can imagine the character forgiving them doesn’t mean they’re a good partner. Cheating, physical abuse, isolation, passive aggression, and manipulation are not character flaws. They’re not “mistakes” that the character needs to forgive in order to save their relationship. It’s abuse, and when you write a story between an abuser and a victim that has a happy ending, that has consequences. 

Revealing Feelings In A Cliché Way

This is very subjective, however, there are also a plethora of tropes to choose from and an infinite amount of alterations you can apply to make them your own. The objective, however, is to build up to it in a way that creates a satisfying payoff, and an interesting moment that serves all of the work you’ve done to build to it. There’s nothing worse than reading chapters and chapters of build up, anticipating a big moment where sparks fly, and then having all of that tension result in a sad sputter of mediocrity.

Instant Trust

Trust is difficult to build between two people, especially when they have a complicated past. Trust is earned, no matter who you are or what you’ve been through, it’s always a process. It’s never inherent. When two characters have a history of betrayal or hurt, trust is going to be even harder to develop between them, and that process is an opportunity for more tension, character development, conflict, and eventually a satisfying resolution. Trust development is a major plot device, and I recommend you take advantage of it. It’s also a huge opportunity for building romantic tension amongst the angst of trials and tribulations. 

Why Do They Hate Each Other, Though?

There’s a thin line between love and hate, and that line is infatuation; obsession. So, what put the two of them on the bad side of that line? This reason is the main conflict. The overarching plot begins with the point where that rivalry either begins or is challenged after a long while of stagnation, and it ends with the two characters crossing over that line into love. You need to make that beginning point very clear.

Rivalry Shouldn’t Just Dissolve

There needs to be a transitionary period that is tense and awkward with scattered moments that make the effort worth it to both of them. There should be a “Well, we hated each other last week and then they did some really sweet things and now I’m not so sure. Maybe we’re starting to become friends now? I feel really excited when I see them, so I must not hate them anymore, right?” period. 

Complete Opposites

Yes, opposites can attract. Yes, completely different people can fit together very well and have a happy relationship, but this is a cliché and is, in most cases, poorly thought out with little to no originality. 

Love With No Reason

Just like your characters need a reason to hate each other, they need a reason to love each other. There has to be something that makes them work. Not just a common hobby or characteristic or exterior aspect they share, but something that makes them fit together. If they love each other because... they can, your reader will feel like they’re watching two stupid, lonely people tolerate each other’s flaws in the interest of sex or companionship for 100 pages. 

No Actual Conflict Resolution

Relationships are built through conflict resolution. Communication, empathy, effort, and understanding between two people who work to make each other happy. Hollow forgiveness is not apart of that process, and if that’s all there is, you’re not developing a realistic relationship between compatible people, you’re depicting a toxic relationship that, in the case of these origins, can be abusive. 

Underusing Sexual Tension

Sexual tension is great. It’s easy to develop, it has a satisfying payoff, and it doesn’t take up a lot of space on the pages. It doesn’t have to result in x-rated material, especially if you’re writing for a young adult audience, but it’s simple and effective. 

No Awkward Transition Period

A large chunk of the plot should be awkward and uncomfortable to watch. The transition should be organic and make sense for your characters, but all organic movement contains struggle. Nobody goes from hating each other to loving each other overnight, and relationships are complicated and require hard work. Show this.

Catalogue Characters

There are enough stories out there with cardboard characters and self-insert protagonists, especially in romance. Make your protagonists unique and individual. Make your characters diverse and interesting to read about. Readers should have a bit of wiggle room for imagination, but that doesn’t mean they should be filling in the blanks like your characters are Mad Libs. Don’t close your eyes and point at character archetypes to form your cast. It’s obvious and lazy. 

Stagnant Tone

The tone of these stories often falls flat because in the interest of building tension, writers ignore purposeful tone shifting, scene-to-scene. Change it up, make it potent, and make a lasting impact during important moments. Suspense and anticipation shouldn’t just build during the climax and resolution. 

Bad Pacing

When your readers spend hours reading a story that promises a romantic payoff, they expect to see some of it. I think that a three act structure is really effective with this type of arc, with the first third being devoted to building rival tensions, the middle third being the shift from rivals to friends, and the last third building that romantic tension and ending with a happy resolution. 

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[taki118]

Go Watch the Venture Brothers

So just heard the complete and utter Bullshit news that Adult Swim has cancelled one of (if not the best shows) they have the Venture Bros. This series is one of those shows that for WHATEVER reason never got to the level of fandom Rick and Morty has even though they’ve been at the genre parody game longer and in my opinion better. 

The series is about Rusty Venture former boy adventurer and failing super scientist who in an attempt to keep his head above water in debt goes around with his two boys Hank and Dean, and bodyguard Brock on misadventues while various legal archnemisis go after him, such as the Monarch. 

So if you never watched or never heard of this 7 season series let me give you a break down on why you should, 

1) Art Style & Animation

Venture bros is one of those rare Adult aimed animated series that that really truly tries to utilize their medium to the best of their abilities. Season 1 had like such a small budget and corners had to be cut so it can be a little hard to watch at times. 

But with each passing season they get a little better, a little more fluid, go just a little harder and it truly feels rewarding to watch. Like seeing an artist you follow online improve over the years. Like they COULD have stayed with the choppy and stiff animation from season 1 it fit right in with its fellow adult animated shows but it didn’t. They strove for quality to have something that matched the story they were telling.

2) The Writing 

Venture Bros has some of the tightest and consistently great writing of ANY serialized show I’ve seen, adult, animated or other wise. Wanna know why? Cause it’s all done by TWO people (save for like one ep each season where one other person is allowed to touch their baby). Yeah TWO people and they work their asses off every season to interject, humor, refrences, parody, plot and character development in equal measure. 

3) Character Development

Um yes in case you were wondering that’s right an adult animated show has CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT  that holds as the series goes on. Not to give spoilers but characters will go through changes in alignment, relationships will develop and change, some characters will go through negative arcs where they are straight up unbareable for a season before coming out the other side even better than they were before. There is no end of epsiode or even end of season reset. Characters, settings, and dynamics all change over the course of the show and it feels just so god damn good.

4) Story Development 

Just like the characters the story of the Venture Bros grows and changes each season. Things that are set up even as early as season one are paid off as the series goes on. Like not to be that bitch but you know how RIck and Morty teases an overarching plot ALL THE TIME but like will often just spit in the face of fans hoping for more than like one episode a season addressing it? Yeahhhhhhh that doesnt happen here, fans are consistently rewarded for putting the time in to rewatch and really think about what happened in the series. Characters that are seen in the background or are just referenced by other characters will be brought in to be recurring characters, things that start off as a small detail or gag will be given larger relevance and each time they do this you get that “OH I remember that from last season! So thats what it was!” The writers WANT you to rewatch, they WANT you to analyze and they WANT you to theorize, and they give you a show that gives back the time you put in.

5) Parody & Reference 

This series does a great thing with parody. They make real characters  who are just as enjoyable as the characters they parody, they make story lines that both poke fun at the absurdity of the media but shows the writers love for it. So often parody and references are just used to mock the thing but with Venture Bros you feel the love and care so when you know the thing being parodied you can laugh but feel good about laughing cause they are never laughing at a thing maybe you cared for in your youth but rather laughing with it.

And it’s never just one thing. When they parody a thing its often layered with other things to make it even more unique. Scooby-Doo is overlayed with famous criminals, Laura Croft is mixed Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, GI Joe is given the look of the Village People and so on. They never go for the easy joke or reference. Hell theres an episode that starts with them reciting the lyrics to David Bowies Space Oddity for really no reason other than they could. They weave these things in naturally with their setting and characters so nothing feels out of place. Like if you dont catch a reference or parody you dont feel like “I think this isa reference to something?” like a LOT of things do not just adult animated shows. You arent taken out of the moment cause it all feels so natural. 

6) The Characters 

God damn these characters, I could go on for hours about these characters. From main to one off these are some of the most likeable characters you can find. I mean it when I say I can’t think of a single character I wish they had cut cause they are all so well created. Even the ones I hate i have fun hating cause they were made to be that way. I’ll be good though I’ll only talk about my absolute top faves.

- The Monarchs

You ever sit and wish villain couples could have functional  healthy relationships? Well look no further than Malcom Fitzcarraldo aka The Monarch and Dr. Shelia Girlfriend (yes that is her last name). The Monarch is a high strung impulsive saturday morning cartoon villain whos tendency to over react is only matched by his unspecified hatred of Dr. Venture. And Dr. G is his nonsense partner in crime who will cut a bitch if they don’t play by their admittedly weird rules. Both characters are great on their own but are better together. Though that doesnt mean they always get along. Like a real couple they have their ups and downs they fight, break up, make-up and grow stronger in their relationship with each season. 

- Shore Leave

Ok ok so I want you to imagine James Bond, mixed with GI Joe simmering in a cocktail of the most flamboyant gay men you have ever seen and you have one of my favorite gay characters/characters in general. Shore Leave is a member of OSI (the shows SHEILD/GI Joe parody organization) he’s loud, brash, flippant, sassy and highly competent at his job loving every second of getting to beat bad guys down within an inch of their life. I love seeing him play off the stoic Brock and the two have this great brotherly dynamic that’s never called into question. He also gets to have a very cute romance with Al the Alchemist (who is also great). I could talk about this man all day.

- Dr. Rusty Venture

They did such a good job with this man. He’s a self serving, sexist, perverted, whinny, self important asshole and yet you feel pity and genuine sympathy for him and want him to succeed. You can see how Dr. V was given a raw deal by his father who seemed to care more about his adventures than his sons well being and how this molded him into the bitter man he is today, but on the flip side you can see where he chose to use that as a crutch for his worst behaviors and impulses. Seeing him slowly grow and change and be an actual good father to his boys while all the while still be a giant dick is actually really great. 

- Dr. Byron Orpheus 

Ahhhhh Dr. Orpheus part Dr. Strange Parody part busybody stay at home dad, he’s just such a delight. Dr. Orpheus is a divorcee, with an unfulfilling job of maintaining order to the cosmos (which isnt as hard as one might think), and uses his magical ablities in ways most of us would (ie menial tasks and home chores). Overly dramatic and affectionate Dr. O is a delight whenever he appears, but he’s at his best around his daughter and old friends The Order of the Triad. 

Again I can go on but all these characters ranging from main to recurring are crafted with the utmost care for you to want to see them succeed or fail, to see them again even if you know it’ll never happen, and want them to cross paths with other characters. 

The Venture Bros is one of those series that I will ALWAYS recommend even to the pickiest of humor tastes. But if you don’t believe its as good as I said or don’t think the concept is to your tastes I’ll recommend a few eps that I think best show off the base idea of the series without giving much away. In terms of plot and spoilers, though somethings wont make a lot of sense. 

- S1 ep10 "Tag Sale – You're It!" - Dr. V is having a yard sale so of course all manner of costumed weirdos show up.  - S2 ep5 "Twenty Years to Midnight" - basically a fetch quest around the world to save the planet with daddy issues - S3 ep2 "The Doctor Is Sin" - Again daddy issues but with one of the best recurring characters and a great showcase of the series deeper emotional plots - S4 ep6 "Self-Medication" - Really embraces the parody as Rusty goes to a former boy adventurer support group.  Anyway the show is 7 seasons with 80 episodes, please go watch it. I will never forgive @adultswim​ for cancelling what was to be their final season. And in closing GO TEAM VENTURE!

[oswald-privileges]

ALL RIGHT BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT

Power of Three as a series is just. full of weaknesses, most of which come down to poor continuity and structure. I'm not gonna try and fix ALL of those, bc that'd be laborious as hell, but I will pick out things that I feel are the most egregious as case studies.

What Po3 does have, tho, is an absolutely shining strength in the concept of its three main characters. After twelve books of Blandly Heroic Protagonist Syndrome, Jayfeather is an absolute godsend. He's angry! He's rude! He's unhappy! He's not nice. I Love Him And He's My Son. Lionblaze has his invincible pride (hah) and emergent bloodlust, and Hollyleaf has her moral absolutism and certainty. These are good starting points for characters. Sadly, the lack of continuity undermines what could have been three really good character arcs.

So! I present to you:

HOW TO MAKE "WARRIORS: THE POWER OF THREE" NOT COMPLETELY SUCK ACCORDING TO MY PERSONAL TASTE; A NON-EXHAUSTIVE, NON-CONSECUTIVE LIST BY ME

ONE

- Have there be a persistant, overarching series threat. Sol is a character with amazing villain potential who does literally nothing except hang around, and do exactly 2 Bad Things completely off-screen. This Is Not Good.

- Instead, have him be present from the second book onwards- initially introduced as a friendly but enigmatic outsider who is slowly revealed across the series to be a complete black hole of a personality, a social parasite quietly rearranging whatever community he's a part of to just-so-happen to benefit him as much as humanly possible. His "preach individualism not starclan" methods are not so much values as one strategy out of many. (to those who know me- yes i have a type. no i will not apologise.)

- Maybe his ultimate goal is to dissolve and centralise the clans or something so that he can live out his life as a political puppetmaster in all the cat-luxury he likes. idk it's hard to imagine overall stakes for this rewrite BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL DOESN'T HAVE ANY

TWO

- For gods sake you don't have a series based on the premise of "the main characters develop super powers" and then only have the second power confirmed by the end of the fourth book. I understand the first book mostly focusing on Jayfeather- his powers are obvious from the start, he's got the strongest personality of the three, he gets access to most of the prophecy plot stuff because of them. But you NEED to have the other two show an interest in something concrete happening to them beyond that, and you need to at least hint towards the other two having something unique to them even if nobody clocks it yet.

- Have Jayfeather tell his siblings about the prophecy by the end of book two at the latest. The amount of time he spends noodling around not sharing it with them is inexcusable. It's not that it's out of character for him to hang onto a secret for a bit, it's just that there's no point and it slows everything down. It would be equally in character for him to go to his siblings and be like "look, i'm SPECIAL. well you as well but ALSO ME". Boy starts off as desperate for recognition, what can I say

THREE

- Have Jayfeather discover that StarClan don't withhold signs or information on purpose for the sake of "building courage and faith" or whatever nonsense. Seeing and communicating the future is metaphysically very difficult, so interpreting signs and messages is a genuine skill, or even an art. The cats of StarClan, however, really are just ghosts, much more similar to living cats than the currently living believe. This is the impotus for Jayfeather's discarding of his reverence for StarClan, which remains consistent throughout the series.

- Have Hollyleaf and Jayfeather both still change their cat careers in the first book, but put place more attention on the fact that they basically switched jobs. Have a scene where they end up yelling at each other, because can't the other see how lucky they have it? The tension breaks when they realise they've both lost something important to them- Jayfeather his chance to prove he's as capable as a sighted cat, and Hollyleaf her path to helping her clan in the way she thinks is best. They commiserate together, and reluctantly promise to do the best they can with their lots, so they don't waste the path the other wishes they'd taken. This closeness is eroded over the series as they disagree more and more on the subject of StarClan and its role in their moral choices and obligations.

FOUR

- Speaking of Hollyleaf! I nearly threw my phone across the room when the first Omen of the Stars book claimed that Hollyleaf "worked so hard to discover her power to help her clan". Where, Ms Erins??? I would have LOVED to have seen that!! Hollyleaf expresses absolutely no concern over the details of what power she has/will develop, and only has a couple of scenes even touching on her ambitions to help her clan. She has some vague ideas about becoming leader and like one scene where she gets to do some leadery things, but that never gets followed up on. What does happen is that the whole "warrior code" thing becomes more and more a part of her personality (for no clear reason) until she snaps.

- Hollyleaf going off the deep end is something I wanted so badly to get into and be moved by, because I could see where it comes from! Her moral certainty is fascinating, especially since it's based in something as abstract as the warrior code- which, when you think about it, isn't really... anything. There's no concrete set of rules that make it up, no traditional wording or cat philosophers, not even any fables. It's a handful of agreed-upon, common sense rules- don't cross boundaries, don't take prey that isn't yours, respect your ancestors, and don't murder. That's it!

- So, combining the above points, I think Hollyleaf not being one of the Three should stay, but both the audience and the characters are given good reason to believe she is. By around the third volume, make it so that Hollyleaf has found that her power is to get cats to "Do The Right Thing"- i.e. what she wants them to do. She sneaks off often to see Sol, who teachs her how to use this power. Her siblings are concerned about this new power, having already gotten a glimpse at what Sol can do, but she's confident that she can only use this power for good. Volume-specific plot happens, Sol manipulates her into causing him to win, she is shocked and horrified, and vows to stick ridgedly to what she knows is right i.e. The Warrior Code

- However, the more fervently she tries to stick to this abstract idea, the less it gives her results, the more her power seems to be failing. Believing that StarClan is taking her power away from her, she becomes caught up in a faith-guilt spiral that puts her in the position to snap at the end of the series. By that point it's clear to her siblings that Hollyleaf has no power- she was just very, very good at persuading people to do what she wanted.

FIVE

- Lionblaze is a girl now because I Said So. This Cat Is Trans And There's Nothing You Can Do About It.

- Her relationship with Heathertail stays the same- childhood sweethearts who are torn apart as they begin to understand the nature of the societal divides that exist between them.

- This can be used to contextualise the whole "half clan/outsider blood" thing as a cultural contradiction. In reality, inter- and outer- clan relationships aren't at all rare. They can't be, otherwise the whole society would be inbred out of existence in like five generations. But if at least one society of humans can spend a good 200 years pretending Sex Is Bad And Sinful Actually then cats can have persistant cat-racism in the face of all logic. Heathertail clocks this contradiction, Lionblaze doesn't.

- Her relationship-to-power arc doesn't need changing all that much either, other than starting much sooner and being more consistent. At first, she's completely overjoyed by her power, since unlike her siblings, it lines up so well with her ambition- become the finest warrior any of the clans have to offer. As the berserker rage aspect becomes more prevelent, she becomes more and more disturbed by the fact that she isn't disturbed by what she can do, and that she doesn't want the escalation of her power to stop.

- Tigerstar still does his thing, but Brambleclaw knows about it. He recognises the signs from when his father used to visit him, and tries to train Lionblaze in his own way. She ends up caught between wanting to be a good warrior, and testing the limits of her power.

SIX

- Jayfeather can stay basically the same because he's my perfect little angy boy and nothing needs to change. His arcs can be strengthened by having a more robust relationship with Yellowfang where they try to out-bitch each other, and coming to terms with his internalised ablism. Maybe he has a chat with Mothwing about faith a couple of times. Him furiously lashing out at being offered help transitions into an acceptence and understanding of his abilities more naturally. He never stops being A Grumpy Old Man.

- All fucking past-lives unexplained time travel goes in the BIN. Doesn't fucking happen. You can have that lore dump sprinkled across the books, or come from going deep into the tunnels and having a surreal meeting. Make it properly eldritch-level scary, shake Jayfeather's confidence in the idea of them being just a bunch of ghosts.

SEVEN

- Have the way Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight present very clearly as parents to the Three be explicitly, textually unusual. One of the things I liked so much about the first series was an almost total lack of emphasis on who was mated with who, and who was related or not. It felt very real to how feral cat colonies form, where raising kittens is a communal job. This gets completely dropped the moment series 2 starts and now the cats have monogamy.

- This emphasis on the family unit and fostering close relationships between parents and kittens is deliberate on the part of both Leafpool and Squirrelflight. Their aim is to cover for Leafpool so she doesn't lose her role as medicine cat- something she already gave up Crowfeather for before she was pregnant.

- In that little bit of backstory, have a robust reason for both Leafpool and Squirrelflight to leave the camp while Leafpool is pregnant and giving birth, possibly one that ties into the present day story in some minor way. I don't know how, it would just make that element of the story a lot more ground than "we left, the kits were born, then we came back and everyone was cool with it"

- When it comes to the "I am Not your mother" reveal, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are confused and hurt that they were lied to, but come to the reasonable conclusion that well, since they were raised mostly by Squirrelflight, saw Leafpool often, and are loved by both, they don't hate her. Lionblaze has something of a crisis over being half-clan, possibly initiating an attempted reunion with Heathertail. Jayfeather is more concerned with how other cats will think it makes him lesser, something he's still sensitive too.

- Hollyleaf, meanwhile, completely fucking snaps at the way her mother Violated Part Of The Code. It's a completely irrational reaction, but expected because she's been growing more and more reliant on The Code for the whole series, and less and less stable in her attempts to aid her clan and train to be its new leader.

- Squirrelflight is the one to murder Ashfur. This is easy to work out while reading- she's literally the only one of the four with a motive who isn't a perspective character. The mystery is less around finding out who did it, and more about why she did it (it's very ambiguous as to whether it was an accident or not). The main tension comes from who finds out when.

- Lionblaze is shocked, awed by how far she'd go to protect the three of them, and reassures her she did the right thing (as a way to salve her own uncertainty over her own longing for violence). Jayfeather makes it all about himself because he's Jayfeather- upset that he didn't know immediately, instead of, you know, figuring it out in a few hours because he can basically read minds. They try their best to hide it from Hollyleaf, who is already rattling around the final volume as a full-on antagonist, but are unsuccessful. This almost costs them something incredibly important- possibly Squirrelflight's life.

EIGHT

- the whole plot with the Tribe Of Rushing Water is a MASSIVE can of worms that could be removed from the series without issue. As it is:

- Characterize the Tribe as uncertain of how to fight other cats, because yes, they haven't had to do this before. DON'T characterise them as pathetic, doing whatever their leader says without thinking, and with ancestors who have Given Up

- Have some of the Tribe be really good at the violence. Worryingly good. Have others be sickened by what they're being asked to do.

- Have some of the clan cats reflect on what they've done. Hollyleaf would be all for introducing this society to jesus The Code, but even she might be horrified at being thanked by a tribe cat who can't wait to get out there and win themselves glory, only to be killed a few hours later

- The Tribe begin a new tradition of marking the walls in the mud they use as camoflage in order to commemorate their battles, and memorialise the fallen. One of the characters reflects on the fact that in a generation or two, the Tribe will feel like it's always been this way. How many of their own traditions- those that feel almost like natural law- started out the same way?

- Have Sol as the leader of the invaders, or maybe having insinuated himself into the tribe as a "mediator" and doing his charismatic cult leader thing.

NINE

- Cinderheart isn't a reincarnation of Cinderpelt. She's just named after her bc Cinderpelt saved her mother from a badger. this is because I think the reincanation thing is stupid and I can't think of a way to make it good.

TEN

- No more using tails as hand gestures like covering people's mouths. Never. None of it. It's expunged from existence.

Disclaimer: I haven't read Omen of the Stars yet, so I can't account for anything that might happen in that series that's grounded in Po3. I'm like... two thirds of the way through the first volume. I'm Not Impressed.

[magnetothehedgehog]

Dimension’s Ridge Announcement!

Hi everyone, With all the rise in Sonic media and the great releases coming up, such as The New sonic game in 2022,the sonic movie 2, sonic prime, and literally anything Idw has been releasing including their new side series “Imposter syndrome”, I am challenged to up my game and release information on my long running project in the works. Especially Since sonic prime and Idw is literally gonna blow out all the spoilers before I do if I don't start releasing stuff first. Since its been happening constantly, I gotta be a step ahead.

So, without further ado, I introduce you to the World of Dimension's Ridge.

Dimensions Ridge is My personal Alternate Universe that seeks to combine all aspects of sonic media. In fact, its super similar to the upcoming Sonic prime, archie and Idw Comics in this regard, with it possibly being a bit more ambitious, or at least equally as ambitious as Idw.

The Series will follow a number of favorite canon and non canon characters alike, but will also their universal counterparts and alternate universe selves.

The Main overarching plot line is that a Existence level Threat is putting everything in jepoardy. This Creature Known as an Existence Eater spreads its influence to a planet by releasing its minions into it, then after enough time, it comes to absorb the planet, thus erasing it from existence entirely, as if it had never been there in the first place. This has been happening for quite a while, until a few people caught onto it. They began leaving messages and warnings to others in a attempt to save them.

Being an existence level threat, this will take the combined effort of every Version of Sonic,Tails,Sally, Eggman and everyone else if they want anything to be left in the multi-verse. This Story is about how they all come together to do just that.

However that is the main plot. The story follows many minor or sub plotlines and stories that all connect and weave into this ultimate narrative. For Stories featuring Sonic and friends, Stories start off in the classic area and work their way into the modern area as the characters develop and mature, so we get to see and live their journey alongside them. For older characters and parents, I wanted them to have a  more staple involvement in the series, even if only at the beginning. Their Adventures as the World slowly slips into chaos can be read in War on Mobius.

While there are Prequels to the beginning of the story, such as the “Rift War.”, the main storylines that kicks off all the other starts is one of my current productions “War on Mobius.”This follows the economical and political collapse following the Recent End of The Rift War and begins the Egg Empire's rise to Power.I would like to mention that The Egg Empire Now consists of the collective versions of Eggman all working together as a family. Egg Fam for short. But we have Great additions such as boom eggman, Ova Eggman, Aosth Eggman, Satam Eggman, Russian Eggman,Eggette, and a few custom additions such as Omelette and Scramble.

Things That happen in War on Mobius will be seen effecting or influencing the states of things in my Classic Era Story “Classic adventures.” and others ones such as “The Freedom Fighters.”

Alongside canon appearances of less known or scrapped characters and designs, such as Tiara and Honey the Cat, Readers can expect appearances of my own characters, both as counterparts to main characters, and also as people who drive the story forward and show interesting and dynamic opinions of their changing world. A few Such ones would be “Tribal Ties” Focusing on the Tribes of Echidnas, Bayblonians and Pangolins Tribes, all of which play a part not only in Mobius history, but also will play a vital part in its future.

After Classic adventures, comes one of my long running claims to fame and a personal favorite of mine from my early script writing days. Zone Runners. This takes place after the Events of Classic adventures and as the world has been influenced by the political unrest in War on Mobius. It follows the Group of People on the East Side of the World as they try to fight back against the Egg Empire, Newly risen Oscillators Group, and The Very lack of Sonic and Freedom Fighter there. This series will also begin unraveling some of the mysteries behind the existence eater and the ultimate narrative. Originally this concept came from the Fleetway comics, and ever since I've been completely inspired to incorporate this into my own series. If anyone was ever on Sonic Amino, they might have seen me post things related to it back in the day.

I also wish to be a more character focused series as a whole, one who focuses on the people collectively as opposed to just Sonic himself. I want it to as if each character us actually a main character and can save the day, and that the day is only won because everyone has done their part, whether powerful or powerless.

To that End, I have many characters stories intertwine, or lead to one another. Some characters will have branching off stories, while others will be closely intertwined, and always interact with each other, regardless of who the story is currently focusing on.

A few I'd like to notable mention is, Shadow's Ark, Silvers Sanctuary, and Heir of Sol. Focusing on the characters Shadow, Silver, And Blaze Respectively.

While I have a lot of other Titles for the stories respectively, I'd just to touch on a few more before I close.

Worlds collide finally answers the question in sonic media about two planets and the dimensional connundrum of sonic rush and sonic 06. While also bringing together multiple characters who were on their own paths, for the collected purpose of setting up how everyone will be needed much later.

Dimension Forces is, a reimagined Version of Sonic Forces, including a whole new team of villains to take on the heroes from our prior stories. I call them: Forever Force. The Main Three Hitters Being the Villains Infinite, Eternity, And Enigma. In this Story we'll get to see Whispers team in action, and also get to see new stories involving Gadget and His Brother Widget, and a host of other rising heroes soldiers and returning cast members.

I also had this Idea that the wisps were able to use their abilities on their own, except in smaller weaker versions then when they had a mobians help.Thus you could call in drill air strikes and other things to help you in battle, and the flew alongside you rather than in containers. I had these idea way long ago, but what do you know Idw beat me to the punch again in rise of the wisps. However I would just like to say before they do it too, that I had the idea of the wisps combining their powers, as if anyone played Sonic simulator, you would know you can actually combine wisp powers. If its the same type, its twice as strong with a bonus effect. If its different, you can combine the strengths of two different powers. Think how eggman used cube with laser in the boss nega wisp armor.

Speaking of Sonic Simulator! Thats another Story I have plans for. Following alongside the events of Sonic colors, Sonic simulator follows the group of hedgehogs abducted from Mobius and sent to eggman's interstellar amusement park as part of an organic experiment to take out sonic. Suggested by The Leader of the Oscillators, These hedgehogs will now have to work together to prove their worth to Eggman and as worthy adversaries of Sonic! But what of their past memories? What will happen if they remember? And if they do, can they escape? Find out! Also its follow up story leads to sonic lost world.

I'd also like to talk about the Idw Verse Mini series I have been working on! Getting Art from the Talented CatRage and getting to voice my Ideas to My Friends as well as My sister, I present my own Miniseries! Mimic's misadventures!

This story takes place between  the events of Idw's Bad guys, and follows mimic's operations and struggles as he tries to complete his missions, and deal with people of similar caliber to himself. Will this mercenary manipulate his way easily out of another situation? Or has the Octopus finally met the one group who will send him back to the ocean? Find out!

Currently, this miniseries has 5 canon issues and one undecided.

1.Ghost Of The North.

2.Into the Spiders Nest

3.Hunt is on

4.Jaws of a Predator

5.Belly of the Beast

undecided: 6.Seaside Escapade.

Currently I am writing the script for Part 1 of Ghost of the North and hope to finish up the Audio drama reading for it soon.

So this is all the stuff I've had in production for the past few years! Along with my co writer Pinky heart.

Please, Please! Reblog or retweet this. It would mean the world to me. Also please! Ask as many questions as you'd like. I'll answer as many as I can, and would love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions, as well as questions and inquires involving the series.

[sardinesandhumbugs]

i would be very interested in learning more about horwood (derogatory) if you're interested in explaining?

okay so

so William Horwood was is (apparently he’s still alive and kicking in his 70s) a writer who wrote perhaps the best-known sequel to The Wind in the Willows in 1993: The Willows in Winter. (He wrote three more following after it: Toad Triumphant, The Willows and Beyond, and The Willows at Christmas, but the first one is the one most will be familiar with due to the 1996 movie.)

(He wasn’t the first person to write a sequel to WitW; that honour goes to Dixon Scott in 1983 with A Fresh Wind in the Willows although that had some funky copyright issues) 

The Willows in Winter does its best to mimic the style of the original book, and to some extent it does succeed. It is, however, still essentially published fanfiction and, as such, it has some wonderful ‘misses’ that I will mock this 27-yo story for. (I admittedly kinda love the movie it was adapted into, so this is all done with the same kind of ribbing my friends lovingly bestow upon me after I walk into glass walls or eat notably dodgy apples like some modern-day snow white)

These misses include but are not limited to:

awkward character decisions 

These Characters Are Aggressively Not Gay 

But Sometimes It Will Read Very Gay Anyway 

hilarious character names

I Will (Almost) Kill Mole Multiple Times

Sometimes Twice In The Same Book

you will read “The Water Rat” more than you ever did in witw

Rat has river-speaking abilities now  

Badger has one (1) response to “someone has vanished” and it’s to organise a funeral

Rat sees heaven for, like, a moment

Toad nearly gets hanged 

Anyway, because I have A Lot of thoughts about the book, here’s a spoiler-inclusive breakdown of the plot for your enjoyment below the cut: 

The story starts with Mole’s nephew who we will call “Nephew” for the sole fact that Horwood never deigns to give him any other name. (I have been reliably informed that the next story has Badger’s grandson creatively named... Grandson, just in case anyone thought this might be a one-off.)  

It has been... an indistinguishable number of years since the original book, and Horwood decided the natural character development for the polite and loyal Mole is for him to have become a grumpy old soul who has been passing his recently orphaned Nephew around his friends because he doesn’t like company. 

The biggest issue Mole has is that he erroneously told Nephew that he could stay “as long as [he] wants” and, well, you have to see this for yourself: 

...for ‘as long as you want’ soon feels like a life sentence to a bachelor like Mole, unused to sharing his home with another for more than an evening at a time. 

(Mole is a Bachelor, okay? He’s definitely not accustomed to living whole seasons with Ratty, to the point that he nearly forgets what his own home looks like.)

So Mole is beginning to think that perhaps Nephew isn’t The Worst Thing Ever when Portly turns up in the middle of a horrible snow storm and, in attempting to warm him up, Nephew gives him too much alcohol and promptly sends Portly off to sleep, but not before he imparts that he came running all this way because Rat said that he needed Mole. 

So Mole heads out into the terrible snow storm, gets to the River, and carves his will into a tree because this is Horwood’s fanfic and he can write angst if he wants to, dammit! And, naturally, everything goes wrong. a la Don’t Carry It All style.

You may be saying, oh plot! This sounds dramatic! I regret to inform you that Rat was not, in fact, in danger, but was actually just snowed in with Otter and drunkenly remarked that it’d be so much jollier if Mole joined them (no homo), and then carried getting so drunk that neither of them realised that Portly was gone until three days later. 

[A helpful comic illustrating Otter’s parental abilities]

(This is, of course, the same Portly for whom Otter spent days trying to find in The Piper At the Gates of Dawn chapter of the original book. Turns out his  parental approach has drastically changed since then.)  

After some searching, they find Mole’s will carved into the tree and deduce that Mole attempted to cross the frozen river and failed and they decide to leave off searching until it’s light again. In the meantime, we get this lovely passage that I actually adore for how tender it is: 

The Water Rat knew a night of shadows and half-dreams, memories of Mole in the hot afternoon sun of summer, reflecting upon life. Such remembrances tormented the poor Rat till dawn came once more and he stared bleakly out of the window, tears trickling down his face, listening to the quiet bustle of the other three round the corner in the kitchen. 

During all of this, Toad has discovered a love of flying machines (biplanes, to you and me) and the Riverbankers claim use of his newest one to search for Mole. Long story short, Toad tricks his way into being the pilot, flies so badly that he unseats Rat (who manages to deploy his parachute in time, but has a near-death experience beforehand) and then crashes the plane into a greenhouse in town. 

The other Riverbankers find Rat, who has survived his fall (even if he has seen Beyond the Veil) and he’s currently Talking to the River (Horwood decided to take the “water” part of Rat’s name as a personality trait) and Rat assures the Riverbankers that Mole isn’t dead because the River Said So.

Badger is like, cool, cool, okay he’s suffered a mental break from losing Mole, and possibly Toad too, so we’re going to do the sensible thing and host a funeral for Mole. (Have I mentioned how much they are definitely straight?) 

Anyway, in a move that would make any soap opera green with envy, Mole manages to find his way back to the Riverbank just in time to crash his own funeral, scaring everyone witless until they realise their mistake. (I did say this was published fanfiction.) Everyone is happy, Mole is not dead, and life goes merrily on. 

Meanwhile, Toad has had a few misadventures, that include: 

crashing into a greenhouse that belongs to the judge who sentenced him in the original book

somehow no one realises he’s Toad, so he stays in bed as the heroic pilot who risked life and limb to stop his plane from crashing into the town

escaping disguised as a chimney sweep

turning up to a wedding that the judge was attending and getting arrested

being accused of murdering the missing chimney sweep 

being sentenced to be hanged for murdering the missing chimney sweep

being acquitted from the crime when it turns out the chimney sweep is still alive

(Yes, Horwood really went, hey I should raise the stakes from the original, and then put Toad on trial for murder under threat of hanging.) 

(If what I’ve heard about the later books, Horwood decided that what the Extended WitW Universe was missing was an overarching antagonist, which he rectifies by having the judge return several times.)

Toad is set on his way and he slowly returns back to the Riverbank, mostly because he’s under the impression that not only is Mole dead, but that he probably killed Rat too (this is a Fun Kid’s Book) whereupon he eventually discovers that, uncared for, Toad Hall has fallen into flooded ruin. He mopes and drinks and lights candles before toddling off to Badger’s home, where Badger is having a thoroughly miserable party that has pretty much turned into a Mourning Toad party and they all celebrate Toad’s return. There’s even a sweet moment:

Toad, very drunk and sad: What am I, Badger? Badger: You are home, Toad.

And then in the last two minutes of the book, Toad Hall burns to the ground because Horwood couldn’t resist a last-minute sprinkling of drama into the story.

(Also, also, the last few lines of the book seems to imply that the name of “The Mole” is something that’s inherited like the title of Caesar was, and Nephew will one day be The Mole and I can’t get over that.)

The End. 

Anyway, Horwood is evidence that fanfic writers have always gone, “I can add angst to this,” and that you really shouldn’t feel so bad about that edgy OOC fanfic you wrote when you were 13 because it turns out some people go and get theirs published.

And that’s why some of us have “Horwood (Derogatory)” as a meme. 

[bassiter2]

the more i think about it the more i think i’ll actually be extremely disappointed if there isn’t ever a gus (and max)-centric prequel series

firstly we all know that good things come in threes and even if they didn’t, gus fits into a pre-existing trifecta of men within the breaking bad universe who control it all: walt’s actions fuel the main series, which chronicles his descent into evil. saul enables much of walt’s success, and so he’s gotten his own series that chronicles his loss of a moral center as well as shows how all of his resources came together to allow walt to do what he does later.

meanwhile gus is the one who triggers all of that into motion, and he’s done it almost entirely on purpose - if you don’t count the event that all of it is responding to, of course. gus is responsible for the meth trade in albuquerque. he’s connected to saul and mike and madrigal and the cartel. he’s literally at the core of the overarching plot of breaking bad.

we of course already know the exact event that drove gus to craft the circumstances in which saul’s and later walt’s stories took place, but what i’m suggesting is not yet another series about the aftermath of max’s murder that’s simply very direct about that fact this time --

no, what i’m suggesting and more importantly what i would LOVE... is a series that would show everything before max’s murder. 

and yes, this would essentially make it so the protagonist doesn’t technically break bad until the very end - OR, possibly even, that this time the protagonist’s arc is not about him getting worse at all but in fact better. which would then make it a sort of doubly ironic tragedy bc not only do we know exactly where gus ends up, but we wouldn’t even be having to confront that fact or those themes for the majority of the series, unlike with bcs and saul’s tragedy. it wouldn’t necessarily be a very happy story that simply ends with a bang, but the decay that leads up to that bang (i’m thinking, the decay of gus’s ability or want to act without extreme forethought, or to be inconsiderate?) would just be much more subtle bc it’s not of the moral variety.

frankly it’s these contrasts with brba and bcs that i think would make a potential gus-centric prequel series really fucking good and feel even more complete. like, watching bcs is really like watching a lot of the same problems that brba put out there but then they get solved completely differently, allowing us to see all angles. imagine the angles we’d see with gus, who is already a clear foil for walt!

it would be a perfect sort of mirror-image parallel, with bcs sitting in the middle between it and breaking bad both chronologically and symbolically. consider:

walt has an established marriage that’s doomed to fail and does so rapidly. saul has a sort-of gf who quickly develops more and then their relationship slowly falls apart. and gus's onscreen romance with max would actually begin before day 1, developing throughout the series.

family. walt clings to the idea that everything he does is for them in order to justify his actions, but isn’t actually very involved with them. saul is VERY involved with his family and it’s actually that involvement that drives him to start doing more bad things out of spite. and gus would likely feel justified in doing any of the bad things he does because he has NO family.

the dichotomy of walt’s domestic life vs. his criminal life. skyler vs. jesse. for saul, kim embodies that dichotomy all herself and switches between the skyler role and jesse role at will (though at great cost to her own self). and for gus? it remains to be seen, but i imagine he could be the one successfully embodying skyler and jesse once it gets to that point. max is the one who knows how to make meth, after all.

walt dives headfirst into the criminal underground upon feeling like he’s been given the first ever opportunity to do big things, full of turmoil the whole time until he dies and takes almost everyone else down with him. saul relatively passively allows the criminal world to take him, being sapped gradually over time of a moral compass until he’s a wholly opportunistic shell of a man. gus, during bcs and brba, successfully rides the line between the legitimate world and the criminal one. something tells me he started in the realm of crime and worked his way up.

anyway even aside from all that it’s honestly just? WILD how little of gus’s past we actually know when he’s so significant to the plot??? there’s such small hints that you REALLY have to pay attention to, and even then we don’t get a clear picture. 

we know he had a reputation prior to meeting the salamancas - a reputation that saved his life. and we know it’s something military-related and likely to do with the pinochet regime. and we know that he started off in deep poverty but by the 80s was wealthy enough to pay for max’s education. but that’s it! and that’s PERFECT potential for a premise of a series! it’s only fair that we could see those blanks get filled in, and especially to do the same thing we did with walt and saul - to watch, in real time, how gus became the man we’ve known him to be since at least 1989. 

finally the fact that this potential show would surely also just be a beautiful period piece that would put gay latino representation on the mainstream’s radar.......... like PLEASE holy shit

[last-of-the-jaded]

After having willingly given the last month of my life over to MDZS and it’s Live Action counterpart I wanted to compile a list of my favorite aspects of both (including spoilers). Both the original Chinese Novel and it’s stunning 2019 Summer Release counterpart are breathtaking in different manners, but if you are looking for a quick recommendation, I do recommend going for the drama first as it will simplify the further consumption of content if you decide you want to partake in more.

What I love about THE UNTAMED:

The symbolism of the cliff at Nightless City, and how that entire scene marks a clear shift in Wuxian’s mental state as well as the overarching story. Similarly, how in the end it is Wuxian who throws himself off that precipice to sure death. This detail provides a direct comparison between his mental state at this moments and Cheng’s after his core was squashed, while also touching on an unique level of disparity and regret that is unrealized in the novel at this point (considering how this isn’t how Wuxian dies in the written version)

Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo. I’ve made posts about this already so I’ll spare you another essay (Here and Here)

Jiang Cheng’s entire character arc. Seeing him fully fleshed out, utilized, and properly human within the drama made it hard for me to swallow how shallow he often felt on paper, especially in the early chapters. I get that this is partially due to the youth sequences in the book being written completely from Wuxian’s POV, but for me there is something incredibly human and genuine just lacking from the version of Cheng on paper that stood out so gorgeously for me in terms of his drama counterpart. Wang Zhou Cheng did an amazing job bringing out his raw emotion and anger on screen, lines were delivered in a manner that truly solidified this characters growth and vulnerability to me. For such a new actor within his field he did a brilliant job, and is the reason I have so many damn emotions concerning Jiang Cheng’s character arc. (I have a million analysis pieces typed up on my blog if that interests you)

The sequential order for the flashbacks was incredibly easy to consume. It helped to keep events and motivations clear. I understand why the book was able to skip around in a more winding mysterious manner, but from a drama standpoint I massively appreciated being able to consume the events leading up to Wuxian’s demise in consecutive order. The first few episodes were initially extremely confusing to me as a new watcher, and it’s only when the flashbacks hit that the plot-line solidified as well.

The female leads! Yanli, Qing, and Mianmian having larger roles and development was absolutely a plus. Everyone had the same intentions and feel as they did in the original, just more fully fleshed out since they were given time to interact within the world. As a bonus note seeing Madam Yu and hearing her bullshit on screen, said out-loud in the bitchy tone her actress gave her, made her 10X worse and from an antagonist perspective I massively appreciate that they were able to make me despise her so damn much.

Everyone important to the past storyline being involved in the Gusulan Study Sessions under Lan Qiren. This was a simple and effective manner of introducing everyone and having characters feel involved and interactive from the get-go. I was honestly a little disappointed that not everyone was included when I went on to read the novel.

Ning and Wuxian’s interactions early on. Their dynamic in the show was given life, and felt genuine in how it shifted over the course of Wuxian’s trails and misfortune. I love how they included Ning in the early on portions of the series, especially the Caiyi Town waterborn abyss debacle where Wuxian saved his life. It just added more layers to an already intriguing dynamic that plays a massive role overall.

The wolf torture scene. This added a whole new layer to Wuxian’s fear of dogs, while still completing its job of giving Ning and Wuxian a reason to interact and grow. Not to mention the example of Wen Sect Torture Tactics really added to the inhumanity of the sect while sparking our main character’s growth and self-sacrificing nature.

The symbolism behind Yanli’s and Cheng’s dreams. These dream sequences give a glimpse into the heads of two complex character’s and honestly added so much background motivation to their storylines. I loved these details and how much analysis us all as viewers can put into them.

The rain scene. Wuxian telling Wangji he would prefer to die by his hands. The first tears watchers see from an incredibly strong and willful young man who has always appeared stoic. (I cannot express to you enough how sad I was that this scene didn’t take place in the novel)

Wuxian’s mask. I understand logistically why they had to do this from a filming perspective (I mean if you have someone as good looking and Xiao Zhan, damnit you are going to let him look like him as much as you can) but I honestly really enjoyed the smaller details they included to make it work plot-wise. I also appreciate how it was designed as a prop considering it actually altered Wuxian’s features in a manner that made him harder to recognize due to its bulky and carved nature.

The secret underground cave in Cloud Recess under the bathing pool. The whole meeting between Wangxian and the female sect leader. I enjoyed this detail and how they expanded upon it when it came to the burning of their sect home and the survival of their people.

Wangxian’s relationship. Their subtle, trusting, gentle way of showing love. On an additional note I appreciate how it never once felt like I needed to discuss consent with the characters (coughNOVELcough) because everything between them was healthy and playful.

The soundtrack, costuming, and bts. I understand that this was a low budget production (compared to the majority of traditional dramas) and honestly I appreciate what we were given taking that into account. They stayed true to the essence and message of the story. I love the manner in which the costumes became a part of the characters and everyone had a clear style. The soundtrack flowed amazingly well with the scene and tone shifts (this is disregarding how fake their instrument playing looked because I’m still not over how off the finger movements appeared at points). The behind the scenes content on its own could win an award - it made completing the show a million times more satisfying because I do believe that the people working on set had fun (somehow even while filming during the hottest time of the year)

The name of the drama. When you reach that moment when you understand why it is called such - it’s a tale of the rise and fall of Wuxian.

The ending scene. I know it’s not the ‘stereotypical happy ending’ fans wanted, but it perfectly fit the tone and message of the piece as a whole. I love the ending. It felt right.

What I love about MDZS (NOVEL):

The Yi City Arc. It’s worth reading for this part alone. Motivations, logic, and everything just hit so much harder. I do appreciate what the drama gave us, but like, once you’ve tasted this version it’s really hard to go back.

Empathy. In general seeing Wuxian use empathy within the novel just works so much smoother. His little anecdotes and analysis while in stasis reliving ghost’s lives gives it a realism that it’s lacking on camera.

Second Siege of the Burial Mounds. The way the novel sets up this part and actually makes it feel scary with hoard mentality makes it work so much better. It feels like there is a weight to this moment. The waves of corpses are terrifying, and the exhaustion of fighting for hours gives it a level of humanity that makes what Wuxian and Wangji selflessly do stand out even more. Not to mention, the leftovers of the Wen Sect fucked me up. I bawled. This is another detail that I would legitimately read the entire novel over for just to experience.

Wuxian being fucking terrifying at points. Playing with demonic energy and losing control is supposed to be scary. In the novel it honestly felt that way. Seeing him slowly get worse was heartbreaking. Watching how people’s opinions on him skewed, and how he dealt with looks, pressure, and weight on his shoulders, took this arc to a whole new level. The way demons and ghosts flocked to and around him in public added a level of horror that was unsettling and necessary.

Wuxian actually losing control. In the drama they added another flute player to sort of work around Wuxian having to accept the result of his failure. In the novel, there is no such thing -  and I love it. It’s another dowsing to the pain and suffering Wuxian has to accept and learn to overcome.  It makes him coming back a decade later - to live and achieve and get revenge - feel different.

Action scenes and gore. If something is called “The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” you expect some blood, and damn do I appreciate that the author made stuff have impact. I wish the drama had a bigger budget so they could have done the wounds and cgi more justice.

Wangji rescuing Wuxian after the first raid on yiling, and choosing to suffer together, hated by the world, rather than lose the love of his life. I love the use of the cliff in the drama, especially the imagery of Wangji trying to hold Wei Ying up before ultimately falling, but the route the author took in the novel is so much fucking worse. Like I cannot even imagine the pain Wangji went through.

Lan Xichen opening Wuxian’s oblivious eyes. Best brother ever. This entire scene, leading up to the final battle, is like downing a shot and waiting for it to hit. It deserves a standing ovation.

The details in the Xuanyu of Slaughter cave sequence. Every little tell that Wangji gave - he really did fall in love young.

Mingjue’s corpse. The separated limbs, angry spirit, holding bags, and everything made sense because of description.

Wangji explaining how he got the brand mark over his heart. All of his scars. Fuck. There’s inferring, and then there is having it described to you from the person directly and feeling as your own heart dies.

Lan Zhan’s insane arm strength. This is a detail that deserves recognition.

Wuxian’s inner analysis of Nei Huaisang at the end. This was fully formed and actually had some payoff.

The clear comparisons between Mengyao’s fate and what happened to Wuxian himself. Once again you can infer in the drama, but having it clearly implied in the book hits different because when someone becomes a public pariah it’s easier to go with the public outcry than try and defend them. “Nobody knew with more clarity than Wei WuXian that nobody would care and nobody would believe”

Ning protecting Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng in a manner directly parallel to how he killed the people they cared for.

Jin Ling’s realization about being unable to hate anyone in the end. You feel for this kid. You want to see him grow up well.

The beginning set up chapter. Hearing what happened in the past vaguely through spreading rumors and small talk without seeing it for yourself adds a level of intrigue. It has greater mystery than just seeing the scene play-out and cutting away.

Everything making sense in general with no plot holes. It’s one of those things where in television no matter how well you do, you can’t possibly include all the needed details. With the drama you have to infer a lot, and sometimes you will get it wrong. In the novel it really is just much easier to make sense of. This also included the pacing as well. Timeskips make sense.

Kissing. Smut. Damn, it’s so nice to have actual payoff for the slow burn.

[impracticaldemon]

Hey! So I haven't kept up with a lot of otome games and stuff, including some of the non-hakuouki stuff you are into, but I was curious about it? I wanted to know about whatever the Ikesen (ikemen??) series is, or what it is I suppose lmao? I assume mobile games, which is cool, I kind of want to look into some of those, but I curious about what were your favorites or your thoughts on them, etc.

Hi Miss P!

Just for context, I want to mention that I was a “non-mobile otome only” player until about 2.5 years ago.  I was wary of mobile otome games for a few reasons, including *my* perceptions about (lack of) depth of story and characters, cost, and dependence on a server (i.e., you don’t get to buy and “own” a game).  I took a harder look for two reasons: (1) seeing the artwork from more recent games; (2) discovering some favourite voice actors in the mobile otome world.  Also, I just wanted to find more localized Japanese otome.

What have I played?

I have actively played all the (localized) games by Cybird:  

Destined to Love (historical AU, Shinsengumi / bakumatsu era; thrown back in time; fated lover concept)

Midnight Cinderella (classic “you’re suddenly chosen to be the Princess” concept; setting is sort of mid-1800s, European-type country)

Ikemen Sengoku (historical AU, mid/late Sengoku era; taken in by Sengoku faction, become close to key leaders; thrown back in time)

Ikemen Revolution (fantasy, overarching framework based loosely on Alice in Wonderland; setting is Victorian-with-magic, not weird-drug-trip)

Ikemen Vampire (late 19th Paris, but focus is personal, not much political/historical; famous men now vampires; thrown back in time)

I have also played MLQC (from “Mr Love Queen’s Choice” - the worst localized title I have ever come across - I mean, it sounds ridiculous. The Japanese title is “Love and Producer” [ 恋とプロデューサー ] which is more accurate and less dorky sounding.  This game is Chinese (not Japanese) but so popular that it has been translated into Japanese, Korean, and English. **Note that there is some debate as to whether this is an “otome” game.**

I haven’t played: Voltage otome games; Mystic Messenger; or any other mobile otome games.

How do they work?

Almost every game has these features:

you choose the love interest right after the prologue [completely different story for each guy, no common route]

total story length is approx. 26 chapters of 5 sub-chapters [or 13 chapters with 10 sub-chapters]

you are given 5 free tickets a day; one ticket = one sub-chapter

you can buy more tickets with real money by buying “gems” (or whatever the premium in-game currency is called)

you have a stamina bar that refills over time that lets you compete in simple, totally automated challenges versus other players for experience points (usually a straight comparison of your “beauty” score, where beauty is all about how nice your clothes are and what you own (cue eye roll))

you can buy more stamina with real money, but don’t have to if you’re patient (you recover 1 point per 3 minutes, or 20 points per hour)

you need a certain level of experience points in order to pass “intimacy” challenges throughout the story

you also need certain items or outfits to pass “attire” challenges - you can buy these things with in-game regular currency (you get a bit each day) or in-game premium currency

once you’ve read a chapter you cannot go back without re-reading from the start and using new chapter tickets [there is no save function]

there are dialogue choices that raise your affection points with the love interest (getting the maximum affection score by the end of the game usually gives you a nice bonus gift; a minimum score is required to complete the story)

EVENTS are completely separate from the main routes - you compete against other players for the highest event points in order to get coveted items (outfits, chibis, teddy bears, etc.) - you DO NOT HAVE TO play in events in order to enjoy or progress in the main routes

Favourite:

Ikemen Sengoku is hands down my favourite. I would recommend this to most Hakuouki players in search of some interesting historical otome.

not historically accurate (apart the obvious, the warlords presented did not all work or live together in 1582 as presented; the main AU premise is that certain key warlords didn’t die, and relative ages and relevant details have been adjusted to fit the overarching plot(s)), but captures a lot of historically accurate details

best protagonist (modern sensibilities, has a chosen profession she relies on, sense of humour, generally competent, spunky but not perfect

the modern-era physics grad student and history-buff-turned-ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is a wonderful person, character, and “narrator”

excellent sense of humour (game) - big selling point for me tbh, and the localization team has generally done a great job (translating humour is *hard*, and while the adaptation sometimes strays too far from the Japanese original, it’s generally very good)

all main routes are different (overall, the main story quality is very good and has plot to go along with the character/romance development)

character background and development is very good

variety of love interests, with non-love-interest characters still playing important and interesting roles [sadly, few-to-no developed female secondary characters; lots of bro/mances of different kinds]

main routes all have two different endings (moving toward three); the different endings span several chapters (not just an epilogue) and are reasonably distinct in most routes (but both are clearly happy endings)

dressing up your character turns out to be a lot of fun (apparently I have NOT gotten over playing with dolls, bears, or chibis, go figure)

special “events” feature all kinds of new stories, some more creative than others (imagine Hakuouki with frequent, official new content!)

Note:  romance/sexiness level varies per route and character (Cybird provides some guidance on this in their route notes for most of their games); you generally have to pay to read more explicit stuff, but even then the level of implied/explicit varies - IkeSen is generally mid-range for Cybird for romantic/mature content in my opinion

Voice Acting:  only a few voiced lines, but more are in the works - there is a PS Vita version of the full game with full voice acting; my attention was drawn by Toriumi Kosuke (Saito from Hakuouki) voicing Toyotomi Hideyoshi (but the voice is deliberately lighter than Saito’s sadly for me); there are a LOT of pro seiyuu in the more recent Cybird games (Hakuouki’s Kazama as Leonardo da Vinci in Ikemen Vampire is a treat for the ears, honestly)

Reviews for other Cybird: 

I enjoy Midnight Cinderella for the sheer Princessy-ness of it all, and playing with dolls *ahem*. The main stories have both “personal development” and “political intrigue” style plots; however, this game is biased toward romance. There are a range of love interests, which is great - everyone can have their favourite(s). The top characters are “poster boy” (Knight Captain) Alyn Crawford (the guy you’d find on the box cover if there were one), (King) Byron Wagner, and (Duke) Louis Howard.  Call them Classic Tsundere, Classic Kuudere, and Classic Appears-to-be-tsun-but-is-really-a-total-cinammon-roll Deredere.

I enjoy the characters and world design of Ikemen Revolution; would definitely recommend it, but feel more could have been more done with the setting and characters. Alice is my second-favourite Cybird protagonist. The character interactions are very good and well-developed. 

Ikemen Vampire is very popular, and has a lot going for it, but isn’t my personal cup of tea.  That said, I’m still playing, and I do enjoy various aspects of it - the characters and character interactions, for instance.  If you’re looking for a more modern, sexy, gothic kind of feel to your otome, this could be a good choice.  

I wouldn’t spend money on the Shinsengumi game, Destined to Love, for two reasons:  (1) Cybird appears to have dropped the localized version completely (you can play all the main stories for free, one chapter per day, and you can buy old event stories, but there are no events or updates; (2) most of the stories have an unfinished feel to them, at least for me. 

That said, DTL isn’t bad if you’re in the mood to read some different stories about Hijikata and the guys (plus there are more love interests from the anti-bakufu side).  Hijikata and Saito have a similar feel to them, Okita and Yamazaki have definite similarities as well; I enjoyed Sakamoto more in DTL than in Hakuouki,and Katsura is nice.  Takasugi has a route if you’re okay with a rougher version of Hakuouki’s Okita - just be prepared for sarcasm and a very aggressive edginess.

Non-Cybird:

MLQC is a lot of fun as a deck-building game and has the most innovative story - character development aside, it’s a mix of modern China (the main plot is set in a fictional Chinese city) and increasingly sci-fi elements as you slowly learn more about what makes the protagonist and the four love interests different. There is a fair bit of grinding if you want to read more chapters and upgrade your cards, which are needed to pass challenge points in the story.

This game does not follow the usual “common route then pick a route” progression of most otome games.  Also, you don’t have choices that affect the main route progression (there are choices that affect each love interest’s affection level, though). You fully control which cards you develop (since some resources are scarce unless you throw money at the game), and you’ll probably develop one or two guys’ cards over the others.  Since each card provides you with a four-part story “date” (mostly implied romance, some more, some less), it’s up to you how you progress.

The art is gorgeous, the story is great, the translation is… not so good but better than many Chinese games… the English voice acting is quite good.  You can also download the Japanese voice acting in a number of places.

This is not the kind of otome/game you play to get an Otomate (Hakuouki, Code Realize, Collar x Malice) kind of experience.  But there are a lot of good qualities.  One of which is that it’s the easiest of the games to play for free.  Also, they have a “post whatever you want” policy.  Which tells you just how popular the game is, since people throw money at it anyway!

~ Imp

PS  This is already longer than intended, but there’s a lot more I could write. I’d be super happy if you (or anyone!) had follow-up questions about the mobile otome experience or specific games.

[my-otp-list]

Warning: Long ranting ahead. And somehow this reads like A True Fangirl’s Guide to Daomu Biji even though it wasn’t meant to be...

I’ve got a confession to make. Sharing this because, well, if you are reading Daomu Biji novel or watch The Lost Tomb 1 drama and you find that it’s not as good as the reviews make it to be, here is what I have to say:

On my first try of reading Daomu Biji, I actually dropped Book 1 after about 15 chapters. I got so disappointed that I even ranted to my reading buddy: “This reads like it’s written by a middle-schooler!” The horror actually made me laugh, the elements were typical and the characters seemed flat. The series has so many raving reviews and someone even claims that this is probably the most influential webnovel in China - it thus awed me that I couldn’t find anything too special about the book. In fact, I also dropped The Lost Tomb 1 drama after half of the first episode. Yupe, what went wrong indeed?

Also, confession no.2: Prior to knowing about Daomu Biji, I read a bit of Gui Chui Deng (Ghost Blows Out The Light - another popular tomb-robbing series) and watched season 1 of the drama. When I started Daomu, I kept weighing the 2 series and convinced myself that Daomu Biji paled in comparison with Gui Chui Deng - in both the novel and the drama. Oops.

Fast forward to 6 months later, I chanced upon some PingXie (Zhang Qiling/Men You Ping x Wu Xie) analyses. For some indefinable reasons, I got majorly touched by the feelings and the dedication that the fans have for PingXie. So, against the inertia to read this ‘written by a middle-schooler’ novel, I went back to the series and persevered through Book 1 and Book 2. To my utter surprise, there was only a small amount of interaction between Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie in both books. “The heck are people shipping? They don’t even talk to each other?!”, I thought often to myself.

However, curiosity got the better of me and I was determined to stay just to find out 2 things: 1) What makes the novel so popular? and 2) What makes PingXie such a huge ship?

Moving on a bit more and toward the end of Book 3, I started to get why this novel is appealing. From a series of seemingly unrelated tombs, a plethora of complex mysteries lined up and an overarching plot slowly took shape. Also, the writing improved significantly. By Book 4, I now understood that the world of Daomu is much larger than it initially seemed to be. I couldn’t stop flipping the page. “This is the definition of an epic mystery,” I finally came to the realisation. That aside, a few other things were constructed very effectively in Daomu: a) The bromance among Wu Xie, Pangzi, Zhang Qiling and a few other side characters, b) The character development of Wu Xie and c) The humanity lessons very subtlely delivered.

(Something interesting to also share: The author did not plan to be a writer in any way. He studied Business and took on writing Daomu Biji only as a fanfic to Gui Chui Deng at first - probably just for fun? That may explain why Book 1’s writing is not as strong.)

As for PingXie, oh yes my dearest PingXie. You got to be patient with this one. Their interaction, in fact, still stayed sparse almost throughout Book 1 to 4. Things only got interesting at about end of Book 4, and intensified slowly in later volumes. I think I got unknowingly infatuated with their chemistry as the journey went on. There was no fluffy conversation, no outrageous queerbaiting, no dubious subtext between these two - more like a special bond that was built up as they went through many life-and-death situations. Yes, some say their bond goes beyond romance. In the PingXie ship, the fans worship some very down-to-earth quotes between these two, among which a famous one would probably be

“Let’s go home.”

For Zhang Qiling, a wanderer that spent all his life finding his connection to this world, there wasn’t a Home. Until he met Wu Xie.

Basically, be it the novel or the drama, things will get better - so hang in there.

——

Image is credited to artist finnnnnnnnnn_ @Weibo.

[welcometomy20s]

March 8th, 2020

Persona 5

Review

A fun rollicking adventure.

Okay, for a such a loved installment of a loved franchise, I shouldn’t end the review like this, but I really do think the above sums it up pretty well.

I mean, just everything about this game screams ‘a fun rollicking adventure’, from the music, to the design, to the mechanics (sort of)... the game invites you to let down your worries and just hangout with pretty fun characters.

You know I don’t care much about mechanics as much as the narrative and themes, so let’s get down to the nitty-grity of the plot... well, not really.

The story of Persona 5 is a start-up story. You know what it is, The Social Network, Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs, even Citizen Kane can be described as a start-up story. What makes a start-up story as compared of coming-of-age or coming-of-life is that it’s about the development of a brand, not a being.

And so the overarching story is bunch of high schoolers trying to build a brand for themselves. There’s... not much else to it. Since the overall story is not that complicated, the intricacies comes from the character and the specific plots.

I don’t want to make this a really long analysis of everything, so I think I’m going to consult a tarot and go through the confidants and list them one by one. 

Again, there’s not much I would tell you without spoiling the game, although actually there’s not much I will talk even with spoiling. Let’s just say if you like fun rollicking adventures and if you are not sick of JRPG mechanics, this is fine.

Now for the list of confidants.

(Akira Kurusa) as The Fool - Of course, the confidant is Igor, but it makes more sense that he’s the Fool. The Fool represents basically creativity, with the free spirit and the madness that it presents. As with the fool’s journey, Fool is usually the protagonist, and so it is here. The Joker here is snarky and insightful, there’s a bit of character here than in other games. Why is he the leader? I think it’s because he’s a decisive person. He can sense the rhythm of the world within.

Morgana as the Magician - In the Fool’s Journey, he’s the initiator and fittingly Morgana initiates things. Morgana tries to find the drive in things, perhaps the reason he’s so enamored in treasure. But this drive present the creature as a child, which he is, I suppose. As with character of this type, he’s annoying, but since the characters get crowded, he has less lines and so that’s good.

Makoto Niijima as The High Priestess - Represents hidden powers and patience and here it’s portrayed the Student Council President, who basically gets roped into the team. There’s violence in her, which is atypical, but she has the smarts to back it up, and also she’s very strict to herself. Having her as the Priestess indicate the violence inherent in this game. They are thieves after all. 

Haru Okumura as The Empress - Kind of an Ascended Fangirl? She supposed to be the motherly character, but I don’t know about that. She seems forced to be in that role, her intrafamilial knowledge seem to mainly come from her background and her gardening feels more used for separation than nurturing. Yes, she is ‘aloof’ but it’s also one of childish aloofness, in order to sanctify herself as a Phantom Thief. I don’t know, she’s fine, but it’s a bad fit...

Yusuke Kitagawa as The Emperor - Rude assistant turned bumbling aspiring artist. The character that gets lighter as he moves away from the target, and therefore becomes more likable to many. This is great, I always like seemingly mean person that turns out to be a doofus. One of my favorite tropes.

Sojiro Sakura as The Hierophant - The Authority figure, he probably is not the best authority figure, but he has good in his heart, even through his troubles. Or even perhaps because of his troubles. I think he’s one of the more well-written characters and I think it really adds a good mellow taste in this game.

Ann Takamaki as The Lovers - The main lover of the story. Ann is an active lover, one with ambition and heart, maybe too much of both. Having a model character is pretty interesting, and her storyline is... more hilarious than lovely.

Ryuji Sakamoto as The Chariot - Represents willpower and determination, but one who is headstrong as such. Ryuji fits this to a T, but he’s not more than that. But he doesn’t need to be more than that. He’s a good friend and why not?

Goro Akechi as The Justice - We’re looking at Lawful evil here, although he gets better, apparently. Akechi is one with promise, which apparently carries in the prequel, midquel and the sequels that this thing is surrounded by. 

Futaba Sakura as The Hermit - Well, she’s a likable character. So likable, she gets a lot of ship despite her age and frailty. I don’t know if I want more of her, or would that spoil her broth? Anyway, gives a good balance to the team.

Chihaya Mifune as The Wheel of Fortune - And we move away from the actual team, to this little needed character. She’s fun, but she’s an interesting addition to the game overall. Her story routinely follow the ruin of past theme here.

Caroline and Justine as The Strength - Really interesting couple, or are they a couple? Anyway, I really don’t care for the supernatural plotline so... PASS!

Munehisa Iwai as The Hanged Man - I know he kind of has to be a confidant, but man why would he take The Joker? His plotline is dark and wistful, which make sense given the character, but man, does it not fit with the overall story at all.

Tae Takemi as Death - The Doctor of the story, who is little bit mad, little bit sentimental and overall a fun character to be with. I don’t know how she exist though, her storyline is pretty out there, although this is a Persona game.

Sadayo Kawakami as Temperance - Homeroom teacher... is a maid? Strangely her love line felt okay, because I always felt she was child stuck as an adult. She has a instinctive need to be pretty and respectful and perhaps caring, but in a child way, forceful and not really wise. This is an interesting character for sure.

Ichiko Ohya as The Devil - Very bizarre devil, certainly. Character tend to be obsessive and she is obsessive with... I mean, what? She’s a mess, I tell ya, least Kawakami can clean up, she just stuck in the gutter and that’s a pity.

Shinya Oda as The Tower - Sudden change is the name of the game, so why choose a child game prodigy? Tower feels old and reserved, Shinya is the opposite of that. Although he certainly grew up fast. I don’t know about this.

Hifumi Togo as The Star - I mean she should be the Tower, seeing her fall was quite mighty and her perseverance adds to the perseverance of the ruins. But she’s a Star, she wants to endure, and that’s good. Man, Hifumi does not get a wind in her story. She’s like Candy, she is only focused on one thing, but that’s the point of the Arcana... so there’s that. She seems fine, otherwise.

Yuuki Mishima as The Moon - If Yusuke became more likable, Mishima is the opposite, he is the empathetic victim in the first arc and then slowly get worse and worse as the story progresses, which adds to the bitterness of the game. 

Toranosuke Yoshisa as The Sun - One of favorite minor confidants. Why do we have a politician in the story, I don’t know, but he’s great and gives great hope at a time I need hope in politics. He just has a great story arc, honestly.

Sae Niijima as Judgement - She’s pretty great, even if she’s a bit underutilized. Like I want to see her more, just doing cool prosecutor stuff? I don’t know...

And finally The World, which I’m going to interpret as... the World. Tokyo in Persona 5 is a good one. Tokyo feels like a dizzying metropolis most of the time, but here it feels like... a lived place. And that’s what makes this game so great. Being in a lived city makes one just let themselves go and enjoy your life.

That’s it. Go home.

[mas-ai]

Not necessarily related to the ask meme but what do you like abt eiichi? I'm glad u do like him, he's a very special and good boy, but he's polarizing and I'm always curious as to why people like him

Okay, I just want to get one thing out of the way before we get into this because this is going to be a bit of a rollercoaster. (It's me, isn't it always? but i mean hey ho unfollow if u want because your dash is your own and i want you to be happy with who you're following. it's your account, you have the right to unfollow who you like. c:)

Disclaimer: (I know you won’t take this out of context, this is just in case someone comes across this post and only this post of mine and doesn’t read through my endless devotion to all charas and takes this all wrong ;;)  I haven't seen Legend Star in the mindset of being an Eiichi stan and I haven't listened to HEAVENS radio. I fully believe that Legend Star does not give us enough of an insight into HEAVENS nor does them justice as characters being introduced into the "main" Prince roster. Personally, I consider them as still flat characters despite their developments, that are still in the process of being fleshed out. That said, I haven't seen LS in some time and I don't remember every single detail. Anything I say here is based on my awful memory, headcanons and current mindset with the knowledge I have that will absolutely shift, change and grow in the future - just like Eiichi. I will also say, some mentions of character hate are below and some things are going to be worded a little harshly based on -past- opinions and first reactions (way back when Revolutions was released). I do not support character hate. All boys are best boys and all of the characters are fantastic, even if some of them are not among my personal favourites.

OKAY! LET'S GO, FRIEND.

 ...... I know you asked something extremely simple but I'm not a simple person and I kind of just want to vent write this in hopes a lot of good hcs and stuff come out of it. My short answer to you is:The thing I like the most about Eiichi is how he is written to be a negative foil to STARISH as a whole in the manner that Quartet Night attempted to be. QN did not succeed in this role, but Eiichi remains the powerhouse that introduces new problems into the narrative without being a complete asshole. He retains a personality that is complex, narrow-minded and realistic; he's that piece of the puzzle that brings this fantastic fantasy life into real life because we all know 'that guy'. But sometimes we fail to see two things: 'that guy' has a life and reasons for why the way he is -- and more often than not, sometimes, we ourselves our 'that guy' in some situations. His flaws.

When Eiichi, Nagi and Kira were introduced it seemed at first to me like they were nothing more than a complete money-grab an attempt to re-invest in an anime that perhaps was beginning to meet its end in terms of where it could go with a plotline. It was obvious that Nanami was going to remain impartial and oblivious to the advances of those around her and while we were going to continue to get singular episodes as "routes" no real romance was going to occur. Moving STARISH forward as a whole, something heavily built upon in the first season, was entirely dropped. There was starting to be a major lack of overarching plot for the series. Yes, every specific episode had a main plotpoint - but the anime was starting to lack an overall goal. Nanami herself seemed to slowly start to disappear from the series and ghost into the background and the characters already know each other for the most part; they weren't tossed into too many new situations to continue developing. 

We see so many "bits" of things just sort of.. very lightly ghosted over in the anime and then left to be forgotten. Examples through the seasons include Natsuki's backstory, Ai's story, Reiji/Aine, Ranmaru's history (is it even canon to the anime he was friends with Masato and Ren when they were younger?) - and of course, Camus, who hasn't had a lick of development. (I love you Camus. Anime does not do you justice.)  

Before this too is taken out of context, I want to state the anime is my favourite media of the series and I'm not hating on it at ALL. It's what got me into UtaPri and kept me in UtaPri for as many years as I've loved it and is very near and dear to my heart - I'm just saying, it's not delving into plotlines that it could. It's remained the light-hearted, airy, soft anime where all problems tied off at the end of each episode and that was that. Short and sweet. Yes, the story does move toward Triple S: but let's be real, we all know the outcome from the second the concept is introduced. STARISH will win. Of course they will. It's about STARISH. 

Heck, Revolutions' plotline is about their change and becoming on par with Quartet Night. Quartet Night wasn't done justice in the anime at all. I'm so thankful we got more of them in Revolutions,  but they seemed to have this strange "friendly but rival but friends but also lol maybe we'll take Nanami from you but none of us are actually going to propose that to Shining ever". It was just this weird loop. Again, all good boys, love the anime, great dynamics between them - but the plot as a whole was just... it was starting to get stale and repetitive with the sole focus on being this one tiny part of the world.

Enter HE☆VENS. Or, more specifically -- enter Eiichi.

☆ They expand upon the world of UtaPri quite significantly and open so many doors. (Gates? lolol.) Not only is another group brought into the mix without an established relationship that will dominate dynamics (senpai/kouhai, where STARISH must lean on Quartet Night and QN must mentor which kind of takes away from the "rivalry" potential.) They're starting from absolute scratch and bringing in an entirely new agency. From the way it's translated, it also sounds like HE☆VENS may have been around before STARISH but been established after Quartet Night. We're also introduced to Raging, who provides a lot more backstory for Shining.

☆ HE☆VENS poses a legitimate threat to taking away Nanami AND have made attempts to do so. They tried to force her to join them in 2000%, then tried to steal her in Revolutions and eventually asked her to join them in Legend Star. Eiichi made most of these attempts himself.

☆ Eiichi is extremely sly and smart. When his group was not disbanded, he instigated efforts to better everyone and they spent a year filling the group and practicing to storm in at the end of Revolutions. He knows full well that the winner wouldn't take their victory against HE☆VENS and would want a decisive concert. Which, potentially could have meant Quartet Night or STARISH being disbanded should HE☆VENS win. 

☆ While the rest of the group does soften considerably through Legend Star, EIICHI DOES NOT. He retains every fiber of the personality we first meet him with, at all times. To better explain the point here, I'll make an example of Nagi who originally came off as extremely bratty and high-handed who didn't really treat his bandmates that well. Later on, he's softened and instead of being high-handed, he adopts an annoyance similar to Syo's in most situation and loses that more brash side of him that we see when he slaps Natsuki's hand away - like with Shion. He has a clear affection for them and becomes a little more kind around them and not just in private with them. Eiichi, on the other hand, is developed in a different way, where he continues to be that strong-minded individual who acts out of lack of self-confidence. Fake it until you make it. Even when in private with his bandmates, he continues to keep up all the attitude we first meet him with. He continues to try to keep control of every situation and be a reliable leader, even to the point of emotionally manipulating even his bandmates (we see this even more with Otoya, too.) He grows, yes. Does he /change/? .. I don't really think so. Do we still get to see more sides of him? Yes. Do we see how he displays his love for others? Yes. But this is all done without 'losing' that edge he was first introduced to have. He is extremely, extremely responsible - but even when the time comes for consequences, he remains true to himself by manipulating the situation. He takes the fall for others, he uses his words to change perspectives, he takes control, he remains a leader.

☆ He doesn't change his views. When he's trying to bring out what he sees as the best in Otoya, he does it in a manipulative way that is in line with his personality and is an echo of how he was treated as he was growing up. He doesn't try to "inspire and move Otoya's heart through the power of music" like he might've if he fell head over heels in love with Nanami and had those feelings change who he was as a character. (Some just seem to swap personalities completely after falling for her, to me?) We see the flaws in him as this happens and how some people's minds are sometimes slightly skewed by their perspectives as Otoya goes 'darker' and Eiichi is pleased with how things are progressing. It's not being done to intentionally destroy him, but rather bring out another side of Otoya - and honestly, it looked to me like he was ready to offer a position in HE☆VENS to him. Which, again, is an active act against STARISH.

☆ this boy puts up with legitimately zero shit and if someone is not treating one of his boys right, he doesn't stand for it. i'm a bit concerned about potential discourse so i'm not going to name characters or exact situations out of respect for the characters & their fans, but there are some points in the series where certain characters treat others like. absolute. garbage. nothing is done about it. nobody has enough of a backbone to stand up and call the behaviour out, save maybe one. it's written off and dismissed. eiichi doesn't put up with it for a second. if you fuck him over, or upset someone in his group, or make a mistake -- just like how he has known ALL HIS LIFE -- there is a consequence. if he has to be the one to give it to you, he damn well will.

☆ eiichi has a backbone and is probably one of the most incredibly written characters in the anime yet despite being a flat character.

☆  ALSO HE IS INCREDIBLY PASSIONATE. LIKE SO, SO INCREDIBLY PASSIONATE IN A WAY THAT PUTS EVEN MASATO TO SHAME. Or rather, not to shame, but he has this... aggressive, confrontational, go-getter passion. An ambitious passion. For everything he does, for everyone who takes more than twelve seconds to give him the time of day and get to know him for who he is. He’s where he is because of those people and he just... he shows it by trying to be this rock that everyone around him can rely on all the time but really he is suffering so much on the inside. But he’s so selfless and not in a “look at how selfless i am!! pity me!!” way. He just genuinely wants to support those who stand by him. this is one loyal baby boy.

I have five thousand more points I could drive on and on about, but I'm going to cut this here because I'm starting to get a little bit upset about how he (and his beloved HE☆VENS are treated.) Anyway, I have to admit that what started my love for Eiichi was extremely small. It was nothing more than an answer to an ask that I wasn't even the one to send in. If it wasn't for someone with one of the most beautiful shows of love for this series that I have ever seen and their simple but beautiful art, some of the cutest I've ever seen - if it wasn't for how deeply they care about their blog and followers and the detail and care put into their work... I probably wouldn't have even given Eiichi the time of day. This blog was one of the first I ever followed and absolutely one that makes my day with their content. So thank you, @uta-no-fakku-sama for being such a massive part of this fandom in my eyes. Thank you for all you do and thank you for introducing me to a new favourite boy and putting up with the ridiculous amount of asks I send in, especially for him - I think I'm literally every anon... most of them, for sure.

So there we go! Those are just some of the reasons why I like him so much, or maybe even just a massive and overblown explanation about one main reason I like him? I don’t know. I hope this was satisfactory!

[mittensmorgul]

1) Is Dabb a Black Mirror fan? Cause 14x20 reminded me of "USS Callister" (4x01). It's about a gifted software developer (a "god" of programming) who takes DNA samples from his co-workers in order to insert himself and them as characters in a videogame he's created. In the videogame world he mistreats his co-workers (e.g forces one of the girls to kiss him repeatedly) and they desperately want to free themselves from his control. (+)

(2) In the end the characters find a way to communicate with their real-world counterparts, who finally manage to lock the programmer’s character in a loop of emptiness within the simulation, which he can’t escape since the co-workers left the programmer alone and motionless IRL, implying that he’ll eventually starve and die. If Dabb was inspired by this, I assume that TFW will follow the same narrative aka killing God for “free will” to triumph.

*****

Hi hello there! Yes, I know this has been sitting in my inbox since April. I’m trying to get better and replying to the insane backlog and picking random messages to reply to (my inbox crept over 900 messages recently and my guilt will not let that stand :’D).

Confession: I have not seen Black Mirror, so I’m just going by what you said about this episode of it. I only have a kind of vague idea what that show is about from a few posts I’ve seen cross my dash, so I can’t really speak to the comparison directly. But I can speak to the implications of what you’re suggesting in terms of the SPN universe situation.

And in a sense, yeah this is kinda along the lines of how I suspect this will be eventually resolved. For the sake of argument, though… Chuck is effectively immortal in the narrative. You can’t trap him in his own game and wait for him to starve to death. Because he won’t.

But also, we’re not talking about a mental construct within reality holding TFW captive like the game situation you described in Black Mirror. TFW doesn’t have “real world” counterparts to the characters we know. They ARE effectively in the real world (to them… *we the audience* know this is fiction, so on that level J2M are their real-world counterparts, in a sense? But I don’t think the show will end with us breaking the in-story universe that badly. I think Dabb really does want us to end the series believing that TFW will continue on, their universe finally saved from Chuck’s eternal manipulation in their lives). 

The situation in Supernatural is a bit different, though. For all he would like to, I don’t think it’s ever been implied that Chuck actively can control the individual members of TFW directly, you know? He can’t “force” them do do things directly, like puppets. What he CAN engineer are circumstances that back them into narrative corners and force them to react. But their reactions are their own. It’s a subtle difference, but a very important one.

Like Ruby told Sam way back in 4.22, in a smaller-scale version of Chuck’s manipulation of the overarching narrative:

Ruby: No. It wasn’t the blood. It was you… and your choices. I just gave you the options, and you chose the right path every time. You didn’t need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo! I know it’s hard to see it now… but this is a miracle. So long coming. Everything Azazel did, and Lilith did. Just to get you here. And you were the only one who could do it.

Sure, Dean killed her for it, but Chuck is just… on a cosmological scale, “Chuck” is literally just a manifestation of Creation itself. He’s not a guy, you know? This is where I start to sound like a lunatic, sorry. :P

For all his apparent power, for all the fact he is effectively “God,” he’s just as much a construct as creation itself. He’s the manifestation of Creation attempting to interact with itself, and he’s actively made himself into this personification, created this personality for himself. But it’s not what he is. He’s a sock puppet, and the sock needs unraveling.

Without unraveling all of creation in the process, because they are– at the most basic level– one and the same.

It always brings me back to the s11 finale, where the apparent solution to save the universe was attempting to “kill” the Darkness. But… you can’t actually do that, you know? Not without killing the Light as well. That’s just not how anything works. We always joked that Dean couldn’t kill Death, but then he did… except nothing changed… people kept dying and Billie ascended to become Death. It’s not a “person” but a mantle of power and an embodiment of the universal constant that whatever lives must eventually die. Whatever comes into creation must eventually leave it again. Whatever begins must eventually come to an end. That’s the whole “Alpha and Omega” of the entirety of creation.

And in 11.23, Dean achieved that balance by reuniting Chuck with Amara, or the concept of creation with destruction, light with dark. And he did it with words.

The “Chuck construct” needs to let go of his creation and allow it to truly be free. It’s not that he needs to die, though he might choose to disconnect himself from his creation or dissolve the Chuck Construct in order to allow the universe to truly have free will. It might not tell the story Chuck most wants to see (egotistically his own origin story narrative, played out in every level of the story of Supernatural through his favorite characters and chosen avatars), but human consciousness wants a chance to tell its own stories now.

And Chuck, in story as the avatar for the original creator of Supernatural– i.e. Kripke– being finally disconnected from the universe by the in story avatar of the final showrunner, Dabb– i.e. Billie as Death– I find that’s kind of poetic, yes? Knowing Billie has been plotting something in the background for a very, very long time speaks VOLUMES about how Dabb has seen his own role in bringing the series to an end since he took over as showrunner. Remember, Billie was his character first introduced in 11.02, in what’s functionally the second half of a two-part episode begun by Carver in 11.01. When I say it’s spirals all the way down, I really mean that on every imaginable level. This metas outward into the actual structure of the showrunning and writing here in the real world, too. Dabb… is on another level, tbh. :P

(eta2: not even mentioning that by mid s11 Dabb had effectively taken the reins, and penned the season finale literally called Alpha and Omega in which all of this came to pass in the narrative for the first time around...)

On the side of this with the broken fourth wall, it means being able to hand the narrative over to the fandom, for us to play in that universe in our own imaginations, with a closed canon we can return to again and again to tell our own stories. Fanfic ahoy! With the full blessing of the creators. :’)

And on every level, this is the philosophy Dabb has been putting forth since he took over as showrunner, and I can’t imagine he’d veer from that path now.

ETA: Because I got sidetracked with the Big Cosmology Stuff and forgot the other point I was gonna add here >.>

We did get a smaller-scale scenario where this sort of situation you’re describing played out EXACTLY as you described during s14– in 14.15, with Chip Harrington who’d been directly messing with everyone via the sort of mind control you’re describing in Black mirror keeping people trapped in his “game scenario” of the town of Charming Acres. Sunny had been bound to him by a promise to her dead mother to make sure her father would never be alone. She indulged his game, watching him manipulate and murder people in the name of keeping himself happy, but in the end she freed herself and everyone else from his tyrannical, self-described “god” level control of the town by using that same psychic power she’d inherited from him to trap him in his own version of happiness inside his own mind, where he could be happy without hurting anyone else.

He’s effectively trapped inside his own mind now, unaware of outward reality. In that state, what will actually happen to him? Will he be put on life support machines like Donatello was after Cas stripped his mind away? Will he slowly wither away and die? Will his own psychic power trapped in that reality– which we have been given leave by the show’s own cosmology is the equivalent of his “heaven,” or his spiritual happy place and theoretically his own afterlife (barring the distinct possibility that he’s destined for hell because of his actions and choices during life?). We just don’t know, but his removal from the town didn’t have the sort of negative impact over anyone else that removing the creator from all of creation would…

Chip didn’t (like Chuck) create the town of Charming Acres. He just controlled the people who lived there. Chuck, on the other hand, doesn’t control anyone… he just creates the universe and manipulates it to push people into confronting the choices he wants them to have to grapple with. Again, it’s a subtle distinction, but in the end, I think it’s a very important one.

Okay, now I’m done. :’D

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 Ep1: “See You After School”

The first episode of Fruits Basket 2019 Season 1 has finally dropped, so now I can finally start making posts about it. I’m almost certainly gonna talk about every single episode of this, since I have a lot to say. I’m also gonna use this as a chance to talk about the manga and the original anime in addition to this reboot, so I’m not gonna hold back on spoilers.

Anyway, I’m gonna put the rest under a cut. [TL;DR: It’s absolutely great, but if you’re really attached to the specific brand of zany comedy hijinks that the original anime had, you might be put off by the more subdued tone of this reboot]

I have no idea where to even start with this since there’s so much to say, but right off the bat, this already feels like a near-perfect adaptation of the manga. I’m already liking it a lot more than the original anime [which I saw for the first time a few weeks ago in preparation for this].

One of the things I was most worried about ever since they first announced this reboot was how they were going to handle the pacing, since the manga’s 23 volumes long, and thankfully they seem to be doing a great job thus far. As we knew from the theater pre-screenings a few weeks ago, this first episode covers chapter one of the manga, and the second episode will cover chapters two and three. At that sort of a pace, I think it’d work really well if they split this into three 24-ish episode seasons, but we’ll see how it goes.

We at least know that there’s going to be multiple seasons, and it looks like season 1 will be split into six BD/DVD volumes, with the first two currently being listed as containing four episodes each, so this first season should be at least 24 episodes. I’ve seen some rumors lately that season 1 will be 26 episodes, but we haven’t gotten an official number yet.

It also sounds like this reboot has a healthy production schedule, with them already having a fair amount of episodes pre-produced. Which makes sense, since the promo material we’ve gotten has a lot of animation and voiced lines from what’ll probably be the first twelve or so episodes. The animation studio behind this reboot has a lot of history doing long-running/multi-season anime, so it sounds like they know what they’re doing.

Anyway, onto the episode itself, it’s really interesting to compare this to the first episode of the original anime, since they cover basically the exact same material, but they’re handled really differently, in a way that really reflects how they’re from two very different eras of the industry.

I’ve been thinking for a while now that one of the most divisive aspects of the reboot is actually just going to be the differences in tone and atmosphere between this and the original. The original anime ignored a lot of the story’s nuance and the set-up for future drama and plot points, and filtered what was left through the director’s personal style of wacky comedy hijinks. The reboot still has comedy in it [more than I expected it to, actually], but it’s handled in a more subdued way that both matches the manga’s tone a bit more, and feels more like something that would actually air in 2019. Going by the reactions I’ve seen to this first episode, I really think that there’ll be a bit of a schism between people that are really attached to the specific brand of comedy that the original had, and people that thought it was obnoxious and didn’t fit the series at all. People will probably get used to the character design changes and stuff quickly enough, but the reboot is going to just get more and more heavy and dramatic as it goes on, so I think that might become a deal-breaker for people who really liked the original and don’t like the more subdued/heavy tone that this is gonna have.

The reboot is clearly leaning more into subtle comedy, with lots of scenes where the joke is about stuff that characters are saying in the background to each other when they’re not the main focus point of the shot. There’s also lots of moments where there’s hand-written notes on the screen like there were in the manga, which add their own bits of background comedy. It’s fun and silly in it’s own way, but already notably different from the comedy in the original anime.

Personally I thought that Akitaro Daichi’s brand of comedy didn’t work well in the original anime at all, and I’m glad that it’s gone. At least just going by this first episode, I’m glad that the reboot didn’t try to do anything like the whole Yuki fan club dance sequence thing from the original. I’m actually a little surprised at how the reboot handled that whole scene, though. In a good way. I hadn’t put much thought into it, but it makes a lot of sense that they’d change it a bit so that Motoko’s actually there from the start. When I was rereading the manga a while ago, I thought it was kinda weird how she doesn’t actually show up for a while, even though she then becomes the only important character in that club. So it just makes sense for the reboot to include her from the start. I’m also really surprised that they’re having Rika Aida apparently be a regular part of the club from the start as well, since in the manga she only shows up in one chapter in volume 8. But either way, I liked the little changes and additions they made to that scene to make it more consistent with the rest of the story.

I thought I heard people say on twitter after the theater screenings that the reboot didn’t have the part where Hana threatens the Yuki fan club and the screen goes all static-y, but that scene’s actually pretty much exactly the same. And I still like it just as much as I always have, lol.

Having Yuki be in the cooking class along with Tohru and her friends was a nice little addition that helped make their whole conversation about him a bit more natural than it was in both the manga and the original anime.

In general there’s a whole lot of parts in this episode where they really flesh out the material in both minor and major ways, that overall make it feel much more consistent with the story as a whole.

The biggest example of that is the scene at the very start of the episode that shows off God and the original banquet without really going into detail about what’s going on with it. It’s one thing that the reboot’s, like, introducing some side characters a bit earlier than they were in the manga, but that whole intro part was taken directly from the end of volume 22 of the manga, so that’s a pretty big change. I really liked it, though. Some people might think it’s too much of a spoiler, but I think it worked really well. They didn’t really explain what was going on so it mostly just served as a teaser for what was to come. It also makes it clear right off the bat that the story is going to have supernatural elements in it, and that there’s at least some kind of grander story/world-building going on, which I think does a good job at letting new viewers know that this isn’t gonna just be a silly rom-com.

I also really liked how they fleshed out all of the flashbacks and made them feel more like actual scenes and not just vague slideshows of Tohru’s memories. For the most part it’s all lifted straight from the manga, but there’s some really neat little additions like the red butterfly wind chime in Tohru’s old apartment, and the shot of Tohru as a kid doing taxes. And as a lot of people have also talked about, the shot of Kyoko’s blood pooling into a street gutter was way more heavy than how either the manga or the original anime handled that whole part. It’s a good example of the sort of heavy moment that might put off some people that liked the original anime’s comedy, but I liked it a lot. Tohru’s grief and trauma over her mother’s death is a really major plot point that gets explored and fleshed out across the entire series, and is pretty much the core of her character development in the long run, so it works really well to have a lot of emphasis on how big of a deal this all is to Tohru.

And, of course, there’s the hat. I already know that episode two is also gonna have a small original scene involving it, but I’ll talk about that next week when episode two actually comes out. Just in terms of this episode, it was mostly just in the background, but I liked how they handled it. Having it be right next to Tohru’s picture of Kyoko in her tent was a really nice way of subtly putting it there for people to see without drawing attention to it specifically, and I liked how it actually looked kinda old and worn down. We also got to see the flashback to her first getting it as a kid, which was neat. I liked how they shadowed out Yuki’s face so that we don’t know exactly who gave it to her.

I understand why the original anime completely cut out the hat and everything to do with it, since the manga hadn’t even gotten to the point where we really find out what the deal with it is, but it’s one of the little details in the story that makes it clear early on that there’s gonna be some overarching mysteries and plot points that’ll slowly get explored. It makes the story feel like it has more going on with it behind the scenes, and the original anime felt a bit more flat and shallow because it ignored those parts.

One of the few things that I actually wish the reboot could have ignored was the whole plot point of the zodiac members being able to communicate with their respective animals. It’s really not a big deal one way or another, but this is like the only part of the story where it’s actually relevant at all, aside from maybe like one scene with Kureno waaaaay later on. It’s one of those things that basically just gets immediately abandoned in the manga, so I think it could have just been cut out and nobody would have noticed, but oh well.

This isn’t necessarily a complaint, but I feel like this is the sorta thing where you need to watch at least two or three episodes to really get a feel for what it’s actually about. This episode spends so much time on introducing the main characters that it ends right when the whole zodiac thing first comes into play, and the actual explanation of the curse won’t happen until the next episode. But this is an issue that I also have with the manga, so it’s not really the reboot’s fault. It’s a really minor nit-pick, but I think that new fans might be kinda confused about what the actual story and focus of this is going to be in the long run. Though this is one of the reasons why I really liked how they added in the banquet scene at the very start of the episode. It helps tease at the supernatural elements of the story right off the bat, so the scene at the end doesn’t come completely out of left field.

On top of the whole issue of the tonal differences between this and the original anime, I also really love the art and cinematography in this reboot, way more than in the original. The direction here feels way more cinematic and dynamic than the original anime ever did. I remember reading that the production staff used 360-degree cameras in different places to get detailed reference material for doing the backgrounds and scenery in this reboot, and you can really see that in how spacious and 3D it all feels. A lot of people have pointed out how the shot of Shigure and Yuki walking up the stairs in their house felt really interesting, but I also liked the scene of Tohru running down the stairs at school before walking home with Yuki. It all just comes together to make the reboot feel really detailed and down to earth, with environments that actually feel like lived-in, three-dimensional spaces.

I also think the character designs in this are really nice. It’s still gonna take me a bit of time to get used to them, since they’re intentionally different to how they were in the manga, but they look really nice. There’s a lot of die-hard fans of the original anime’s character designs, but I’m one of the people who thought they looked kinda awful for the most part. One of the things that really struck me about the reboot was how bright and warm the colour palette is, especially compared to the original anime, which felt kinda dull and muddy. The reboot’s just really soft and pleasant to look at, but not to the point where it detracts from the serious parts.

I was actually kinda surprised at how much of the visual comedy and silliness they captured. It never feels particularly jarring, but it still feels pretty light and fun. In particular I really liked some of the cuts where the characters had really thick outlines.

The animation staff are also clearly putting a lot of attention into animating the animal forms, and they look great thus far. I’m almost sad that after a while we basically never see anyone transform anymore, since they already look so fun and dynamic. Especially in the ED theme, but I’ll talk about that in a bit.

Even with the obviously intentional differences in style from the manga, I love how recognizable everyone is, and how they all just have the same core spirit that they’ve always had, if that makes sense. Although I do really like that Yuki in particular feels quite a bit different to how he came across in both the manga and the original anime. It’s kinda hard to explain why, though. A big part of it is that his new JP voice is just really nice, but that’s also part of the broader topic of how it comes across like the reboot isn’t trying quite as hard to make him ‘cool and mysterious’, and they’re also not trying quite as hard to make him seem feminine. He basically just comes across as a cool, suave pretty-boy in the reboot, which works really well. The original anime in particular made him unintentionally creepy and weird with how it portrayed him, though it also didn’t help that I really don’t like Eric Vale’s weird raspy voice for him.

I actually think it’s kinda interesting that they’re leaning heavily into him just being a suave pretty-boy who doesn’t come across as being particularly feminine. There’s not much to go off of, but it feels like they’re tweaking that aspect of him a bit, especially with the drastic change between his JP voice actors. Mostly I think it’s interesting because, especially after my reread of the manga, I think the whole running gag with Yuki being feminine really hasn’t aged well at all, and I think the reboot would probably be better off by just focusing on portraying him as a cool, princely pretty-boy. I at least think that it’d seem even more jarring in the reboot if it tried to pull the same jokes that were built upon the idea that he looks/sounds like a girl, since in the JP dub especially they don’t seem to be trying to make him sound like a girl at all.

I think that’s about all there is to say about this episode specifically, and this post is going on long enough as it is, but I wanna talk a bit about the OP and ED. Or, well, just the ED, since this episode didn’t actually have the OP in it. I assume they’ll just use it in the next episode onward. But anyway, the ED was amazing. It’s incredibly laid-back and chill but also poignant in a way that really fits the series’ tone. I was kinda surprised at how Yuki-focused it felt, though. It’s not quite what I expected, but it’s nice. I really liked the shot of him looking out the window as a kid while the other zodiac members are walking by and having fun without him. The split-second detail of Ayame turning to look at him before Shigure and Hatori pull him away was fantastic.

I also really liked the shots involving everyone’s animal forms. It really shows off how nice the animation for them is. It’s all super playful and energetic and dynamic. Especially the bit with Ayame trying to chase after Yuki and tying himself up in a knot, lol.

I was also kinda surprised to see Kisa and Hiro in this at all, since I don’t think either of them will show up until the second half of this season, by which point there’d probably be a new set of OP/ED themes, unless they plan on using these ones for the whole first season. I really like what little we saw of their designs, though. I love how fluffy Hiro’s sheep form looks in it.

Anyway, that’s that. Now I have to deal with waiting for the next episode to come out, lmao. I’ll probably end up rewatching this episode with the English dub, but I don’t wanna get a Funi subscription just for that, so I don’t know exactly when I’ll end up watching it.

[littlemisssquiggles]

(1/2) So this isn't specifically RoseGarden related but I love all the ideas you come up with so I thought I'd get your opinion on this. I've had this idea in my head for a while now that, what if the CRWBY decided to remake RWBY from V1C1 in the Maya engine with all the skills and things they've learned? I personally think that would be a cool idea since they could use that idea to fix up the story and have it start at the beginning rather than in the middle of V3.

(2/2) They could tighten up the story since, V1 (at least to me) seemed like a rough draft of what they really wanted and it would be a great opportunity to fix up the writing people always complain about. They could also make so much better scenery so we could actually see what Vale looks like and Beacon wouldn't just be a 2D picture in the background! I know some people wouldn't be fond of it since Monty wouldn't be behind it but personally I think it would be cool. Anyway, what do you think?

‘Sup Velian. Hmmthat’s actually not a bad idea. I can definitely see the CRWBY committing tosomething like that as part of some kind of anniversary milestone special,y’know what I mean? As of now, RWBY had been on the web for at least five yearswith a total of 6 seasons and 79 episodes as of Volume 6’s conclusion. If theCRWBY have the resources, the budget and the production crew to pull this offthen I can see this idea being like a full remaster of theBeacon Trilogy. I’m not sure if you’re a Kingdom Hearts fanbut KH is notorious for this kind of thing. Kingdom Hearts had its first originalgame start on the PlayStation 2 but over the years spread its game storyline acrossmultiple different consoles correlating in different engines and more or lessdifferent styles to cater to each engine, as in the case of Chain of Memories.And don’t even get me started on all the Re-Done games andFinal mixes which had additional scenes from the English versionsince the Final Mix Kingdom Hearts games were only available in Japan.

However,later…years down the line, we inevitably got Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 (andbegrudgingly KingdomHearts 2.8) which basically takes all the games and clump themtogether onto 2 discs redone in beautiful HD graphics.

Overall Ican see the CRWBY doing a remaster of theentire Beacon Trilogy (V1-V3) in the Maya Engine if they’re feeling ballsy andagain, have the time and budget to pull such a stunt off without interferingwith their schedule for other upcoming seasons of RWBY.

Or…evenbetter, they can do what Kingdom Hearts did with Unchained X, it’s game available onmobile. In 2.8, they basically created this movie that summarized the events ofUnchained Key with all the characters being modelled in the new game engine.

For yearsI’ve wanted to see the CRWBY possibly do a RWBY feature length movie. RoosterTeeth hasalready done original movies before. I’m just waiting for them to grow biggerto the point that they can evolve again and branch out to have another studiothat’s in charge of creating feature animated films including ones for known RoosterTeethproperties like RWBY.

Who doesn’t want to see a RWBY moviesomeday? Thissquiggle meister would for sure.

Besides,if the CRWBY Writers don’t wish to hot up their heads over coming up with an original concept for a movie that possibly deviates from the canonanyways (like how the Pokémon films used to move), they can always create afull feature length RWBY movie that basically summarizes the events of theBeacon Trilogy while adding a new spin on it, as you suggested.

Nowcontrary to what you and other fans might think, this squiggle meister actually thought the Beacon Trilogy was flawless. Don’t get me wrong, it had its fairshare of faults, yes, however the key thing that impressed me the most aboutthe Beacon Trilogy and why I personally will defend it as the best trilogy ofRWBY so far is because of its plot structure.

Let meexplain. I’m a glutton for a well thought out, well-written, well-paced and well-structuredplot. I love stories that give me a plot where every piece ofinformation shown on screen means something in hindsight to the overallnarrative. I love it when stories create this perfectly woven spider web thataffirms that everything in the story---even those little throwaway details thatsome audience members might overlook, meant something in the development of theoverarching plot. So that when you get the final payoff, you feel this biggersense of excitement because it’s something you know the story has been buildingup to for ages. It’s why I get why fans love the Marvel movies. Each movie wasjust a piece of a thought out Cinematic Universe that’s been building for yearsand it’s still going strong.

I mean, Ilove surprises and moments just thrown in for shock value in stories too but Ilove it even more when I get stories where everything is connected andadds up to something bigger; y’know what I mean?

This iswhy the Beacon Trilogy will always be perfect in my eyes because it had a great structure. Everything addedup. Almost every detail the CRWBY Writers introduced to us between V1 and V2meant something in the grander scheme that led up to V3.  If I had to compare the Beacon Trilogy tosomething, it would be a well-baked lasagne with each volume representing theperfectly staked layers of meat and cheese that slowly build up to a savouryplot of baked perfection (meaning V3 and the Fall of Beacon) that anyone cansink their teeth into.

This iswhy if the CRWBY ever redid the Beacon Trilogy, I don’t want nor do I expectthem to change anything. At this moment, the Beacon Trilogy---the first threeseasons of RWBY are by far some of the best seasons in the show. Between the Beacon Arc and the Mistral Arc, Beacon still stands superior to itssuccessor because of that strong plot structure; something that Miles and Kerryunfortunately did not carry over into the Mistral Arc.

Theystarted off decently in V4 but messed up sadly in the middle with V5. V6 waspretty much damagecontrol for what transpired in V5while setting up for V7 and for the most part, V6 was a great season. Still thebest of the Mistral Arc for me, hands down. It’s just unfortunate that theCRWBY Writers had that slip up in V5 because that’s what most fan critiqueskeeping bringing up. I, as always, have a different stance on this.

I actuallydisagree with you Velian. The overall story did technically start in V1. I meanfrom V3, the key plot of RWBY definitely did kick in more but everythingstarted from V1.V1, by my observation was a solid good season to me. V1 wasabout establishing the important details---our main cast of colourful characters,the setting for the arc and our course our key villains while at the same timeproviding the first instance of what was going to be the main conflict goingforward.

The mainconflict of the Beacon Arc which was the Fall of Beacon at the Vytal Festivalwas something that had clues dropped as early as V1 with Torchwick. RomanTorchwick was the man who the audience identified with since he was the villainwe mostly got to see this scheme get conducted through. It wasn’t until V2 whenthings started to pick up with the involvement of Cinder, Emerald and Mercury.I don’t want to go too much into this but…everything about the Fall of Beaconstarted to build up from V1. In V2, we got more clues but we still weren’tclear on what the main plan was until V3. The CRWBY did a great job of buildingthe suspense and mystery toward the Fall of Beacon so when it finally wentdown, you were surprised but you also got this sense of revelation when yourealize that everything that happened in the volumes before it meant somethingin the grander scheme of things. At least by my eyes. You, of course, have yourown thoughts on that.

I guesswhat I’m trying to say overall is that I like your idea. I think it canhonestly work better as a remaster as part of an anniversary type of event orperhaps a movie where we get to relive our favourite moments of the BeaconTrilogy. However it’s not a straight retelling of the original story. I likeyour idea of it adding more to the story than what we received before plus itreally would be lovely to see Vale remastered in the Maya engine with all thatthe CRWBY had learnt over the past three seasons.

Not sureif they would actually do something like that. However, it’s a pretty sweet idea=) Hope this answers your question, fam.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)